
A MAP OF CAPE COD AS IT APPEARED AT THE BEGINNING 
OF THE 17th CENTURY. 



See page 80. 

/ 



THE 



PRE-COLUMBIAN 



DISCOVERY OF AMERICA 



THE NORTHMEN, 



ILLUSTRATED BY 



Cranislations from tije $ce(antric Sagajs, 



EDITED WITH 



NOTES AND A GENERAL INTRODUCTION, 




7& 



3 








ALBANY : 
J EL M U N S E L L 

1868. 

V\v.Vvv Vvv/ • 



f 



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.a 



y 



j)\.^ 



/3^ 



PREFACE 



The aim of the present work is to place within the reach of the 
English reading historical student every portion of the Icelandic 
Sagas essentially relating to the Pre-Columbian Discovery of America 
by the Northmen. These Sagas are left, in the main, to tell their 
own story ; though, with the necessary introductions, notes have been 
added, either to remove misconceptions, to give information in 
regard to persons and places, or to show the identity of localities 
described. 

So long ago as the year 1838, a distinguished writer in the North 
American Review, in closing a valuable and appreciative article on 
the Sagas relating to America, said : " We trust that some zealous 
student of these subjects will be immediately found, who will put 
the Icelandic authorities into an English dress, and prepare them, 
with proper literary apparatus, for the perusal of the general reader." 

Nevertheless, no one in this country has really undertaken the 
task until now ; for the dialogues of Joshua Toulmin Smith, how- 
ever valuable they may have proved at the date of their publication, 
can by no means be regarded as constituting the strict historical 
work contemplated. The English treatise by Beamish was conceived 
in the right spirit; but, while encumbered with much irrelevant 
matter, it did not complete the subject, and, together with Smith's 
work, long since went out of print. Several of the brief Narratives 
are also given by Laing, buried in the appendix of his valuable 
translation of the Heimskringla ; but the labors of these authors arc 
not now available, and, if combined, would not meet the present 
want. The author has therefore improved a favorable occasion to 



CONTENTS. 



I. Preface. 

II. General Introduction. — Historic Fancies ; The Sea of Darkness ; 
Juba's Expedition ; Traditions ; The Northmen ; The Colonization 
of Iceland ; Settlement of Greenland ; Organization of the Church ; 
Monuments and Buins ; Explorations in Greenland ; The Decline 
of Greenland ; Lost Greenland Found ; The Character and Achiev- 
ments of the Northmen ; The Ships of the Northmen ; The Litera- 
ture of Iceland; The Manuscripts; The Truthfulness of the 
Narratives ; The Absence of Monuments and Remains in Vinland. 

III. Gunnbiorn and his Rocks. 

IV. Eric the Red's voyages to Greenland and settlement, A.D. 983-980. 
V. Biarne Heriulfsson's voyage to the coast of America, A.D. 980. 

VL Leif Ericson's voyage to Vinland, - - - - A.D. 1000-1001. 

VII. Thorvald Ericson's voyage to Vinland, - - A.D. 1003. 

VIII. Thorstein Ericson's attempt to Seek Vinland, - A.D. 1005. 

IX. Thorfinn Karlsefne's settlement in Vinland, - A.D. 1006-1009. 

X. Freydis's voyage and settlement in Vinland, - - A.D. 1010-1012. 



MINOR NARRATIVES. 

I. Are Marson's Sojourn in Hvitramannalaud, - - - A.D. 983. 
II. Voyage of Biorn Asbrandsim, A.D. 999. 

III. Gudleif Gudluugsons voyage, A.D. 1027. 

IV. Allusions to Voyages found in Ancient Manuscripts. 
V. Geographical Fragments. 



GENERAL INTRODUCTION, 



PRE-COLUMBIAN DISCOVERY. 



GENERAL INTRODUCTION. 

HISTORIC FANCIES. 

Before the plains of Europe, or even the peaks of Chou- 
malarie, rose above the primeval seas, the Continent of 
America emerged from the watery waste that encircled 
the whole globe, and became the scene of animate life. 
The so-called New World is in reality the Old, and bears 
abundant proofs of hoary age. But at what period it 
became the abode of man we are unable even to con- 
jecture. Down to the close of the tenth century of the 
Christian era it had no written history. Traces of a rude 
civilization that suggest a high antiquity are by no means 
wanting. Monuments and mounds remain that point to 
periods the contemplation of which would cause Chronos 
himself to grow giddy; yet among all these great and 
often impressive memorials there is no monument, inscrip- 
tion, or sculptured frieze, that solves the mystery of their 
origin. Tradition itself is dumb, and the theme chiefly 
kindles when brought within the realm of imagination. 
We can only infer that age after age nations and tribes 
continued to rise to greatness and then fall into decline, 
and that barbarism and a rude culture held alternate sway. 

Nevertheless, men have enjoyed no small degree of 
satisfaction in conjuring up theories to explain the origin 
of the early races on the Western Continent. What a 
charm lingers around the supposed trans- Atlantic voyages 
of the hardy Phenician, the luxurious sailors of Tyre, and, 



xii PRE-COLUMBIAN DISCOVERY OF 

later, of the bold Basque. What stories might the lost 
picture-records of Mexico aud the chronicles of Dieppe 
tell. Now we are presented with the splendid view of 
great fleets, the remnant of some conquered race, bearing 
across the ocean to re-create in new and unknown lands 
the cities and monuments they were forever leaving 
behind ; ^ and now it is simply the story of some storm- 
tossed mariner who blindly drives across to the western 
strand, and lays the foundation of empire. Again it is 
the devotee of mammon, in search of gainful traffic or golden 
fleece. How romantic is the picture of his little solitary 
bark setting out in the days of Roman greatness, or in the 
splendid age of Charlemagne, sailing trustingly away 
between the Pillars of Hercules, and tossing towards the 
Isles of the Blessed and the Fountains of Eternal Youth. 
In time the Ultima 2Viule of the known world is passed, 
and favoring gales bear the merchant-sailor to new and 
wondrous lands. We see him coasting the unknown 
shores passing from cape to cape, and from bay to inlet, 
gazing upon the marvels of the New World, traflicing with 
the bronzed Indian, bartering curious wares for barbaric 
gold ; and then shaping his course again for the markets 
of the distant East to pour strange tales into incredulous 
ears. Still this may not be all tancy. 

THE SEA OF DARKNESS, 

In early times the Atlantic ocean, like all things without 
known bounds, was viewed by man with mixed feelings 
of fear and awe. It was called the Sea of Darkness. Yet, 
nevertheless, there were those who professed to have some 
knowledge of its extent, and of what lay beyond. The 
earliest reference to this sea is that by Theoponipns, in the 



' Sr<" Jimcs (III T/i( 7)/ri<(n Period of Anwrica. 



AMERICA BY THE NORTHMEN. xiii 

fourth century before the Chi'istian era, given in a frag- 
ment of ^'Elian/ where a vast island is described, lying far 
in the west, and peopled by strange races. To this wc 
may add the reference of Plato ^ to the island called 
Atlantis, which lay west of the Pillars of Hercules, and 
vt^hich was estimated to be larger than Asia and Africa 
combined. Aristotle ^ also thought that many other lands 
existed beyond the Atlantic. Plato supposed that the 
Atlantis was sunk by an earthcpiake, and Grantor says 
that he found the same account related by the Priests of 
Sais three hundred ^^ears after the time of Solon, from 
whom the grandfather of Critias had his information. 
Plato says, that after the Atlantis disappeared navigation 
was rendered too difficult to be attempted by the slime 
which resulted from the sinking of the land. It is prob- 
able that he had in mind the immense fields of drifting 
sea-weed found in that locality, and which Humboldt esti- 
mates to cover a portion of the Atlantic ocean six times as 
large as all Germany. 

It is thought that Homer* obtained the idea of his 
Elysium in the Western ocean from the voyages of the 
Phenicians, who, as is well known, sailed regularly to the 
British Islands. They are also supposed by some to have 
pushed their discoveries as far as the Western Continent. 
Cadiz, situated on the shore of Andalusia, was established 
l)y the Tyrians twelve centuries before the year of 
Christ ; and when Cadiz, the ancient Gadir, was full five 
hundred years old, a Greek trader, Cohans, there bought 
rare merchandise, a long and severe gale having driven 
his ships beyond the Pillars of Hercules. 



' Vnr. Hist., lib. in, cap. xviii. 

* See Plato's Cntiih'< and TinyvtiH. 

^ De Mundo, cap. in. See rriiice ILiuy the Ndriyator, diai). vii, ))y 
Major: London, 18G8. 

* OiJyascy, book iv, 1. 70"). 



xiv PKE-COLUMBIAN DISCO \' Kit Y OF 



thp: phenicians. 

In the ninth century before the Christian Era, the Phe- 
nicians had established colonies on the western coast of 
Africa; and three hundred years later, according to Hero- 
dotus, Pharaoh IS'echo, son of Psammiticus, sent an expe- 
dition, manned by Phenician sailors, around the entire 
coast of Africa. Vivien de St. Martin fixes the date of this 
expedition at 570 before Christ. St. Martin, in his account 
of the voyage, improves slightly upon the views of Carl 
Miiller, and is followed by Bougainville.^ This voyage, 
performed by Hanno under the direction of Pharaoh, was 
inscribed in the Punic language in a Carthagenian temple, 
being afterwards translated into Greek, and was thus 
preserved. 

That the Canary Islands were discovered and colonized 
by the Phenicians, there need be no doubt. Tradition 
had always located islands in that vicinity. Strabo speaks 
of the Islands of the Blessed, as lying not far from Mauri- 
tania, opposite Gadir or Cadiz. And he distinctly says, 
" That those who pointed out these things were the Phe- 
nicians, who, before the time of Homer, had possession of 
the best part of Africa and Spain." ^ And when we 
remember that the Phenicians sought to monopolize trade, 
and hold the knowledge of their commercial resorts a 
secret, it is not surprising that we should hear nothing 
more of the Fortunate Isles until about eighty-two years 
before Christ, when the Roman Sertorius met some Lusi- 
tanian sailors on the coast of Spain who had just returned 
from the Fortunate Isles. They are described as two 
delightful islands, separated by a narrow strait, distant 



'See Prince Henry the Naci(j<itur, p. DO. 
''Strobo. lil). \\\.—Pl,it<(rch. 



AMERICA BY THE NORTHMEN. xv 

from Africa five hiinclred leagues. Twenty years after 
the death of Sertoriiis, Statius Sebosus drew up a chart of a 
group of five islands, each mentioned by name, and which 
Pliny calls the Ilesperides, including the Fortunate Isles. 
This mention of the Canaries was sixty-three years before 
Christ. 



JUBA'S EXPEDITION. 

When King Juba II returned to Mauritania, he sent an 
expedition to the Fortunate Isles. A fragment of the narra- 
tives of this expedition still survives in the works of Pliny. 
They are described as lying southwest, six hundred and 
twenty-five miles from Purpurarise. To reach them from 
this place, they first sailed two hundred and fifty miles west- 
w^ard and then three hundred and seventy-five miles eastward. 
Pliny says : " The first is called Ombrios, and contains no 
traces of buildings. There is in it a pool in the midst of 
mountains, and trees like ferules, from which water may 
be pressed, which is bitter fi'om the black kinds, but from 
the light kinds pleasant to drink. The second is called 
Junonia, and contains a small temple built entirely of stone. 
Near it is another smaller island having the same name. 
Then comes Capraria, which is full of large lizards. 
Within sight of these is Mvaria, so called from the snow and 
fogs with which it is always covered. I^^ot far from Niva- 
ria is Canaria, so called on account of the great number 
of large dogs therein, two of which were brought to 
King Juba. There were traces of buildings in these 
islands. All the islands abound in apples, and in birds of 
every kind, and in palms covered with dates, and in the 
pine nut.' There is also plenty of fish. The papyrus 
grows there, and the silurus fish is found in the rivers."^ 



'V\\n\'t=. Nt(tnf(tl JliKtori/. lib. vi, caj). 37. 



Xvi PHE COLUMBIAN DISCOVERY OF 

The author of Prince Henry the Amigaior,^ says that in 
Ombrios, we recognize the Pluvialia of Sebosus. Con- 
vallis of Sebosus, in Pliny, becomes Xivaria, the Peak of 
Teneriffe, which lifts itself up to the majestic height of 
nine thousand feet, its snow-capped pinnacle seeming to 
pierce the sky. Planaria is displaced by Canaria, whicli 
term first applied to the great central island, now gives 
the name to the whole group. Ombrios or Pkivialia, 
evidently means the island of Palma, which had " a pool 
in the midst of mountains," now represented by the crater 
of an extinct volcano. This the sailors of King Juba 
evidently saw. Major says : " The distance of this island 
[Palma] from Fuertcventura, agrees with that of the two 
hundred and fifty miles indicated by Juba's navigators as 
existing between Ombrios and the Purpurarire. It has 
already been seen that the latter agree with Lancerote and 
Fuertcventura, in respect of their distance from the con- 
tinent and from each other, as described by J*lutarch. 
That the Purpurarire are not, as M. Bory de St. Vincent 
supposed, the Madeira group, is not only shown by the 
want of inhabitants in the latter, Imt by the orchil, which 
supplies the purple dye, being derived from and sought 
for especially from the Canaries, and not from the Madeira 
group, although it is to be found there. Junonia," he 
continues, " the nearest to Ombrios, will be Gomera. It 
may be presumed that the temple found therein, was, like 
the island, dedicated to Juno. Capraria, which implies 
the island of goats, agrees correctly with the island of 
Ferro, . . . for these animals were found there in large 
numbers when the island was invaded by Jean de Bethen- 
court, in 1402. But a yet more striking proof of the 
identity of this island with Capraria, is the account of the 
great number of lizards found therein. Bethencourt's 

'Secp-I^H. 



AMERICA BY THE NORTHMEN. xvii 

chaplains, describing their visit to the islands, in 1402, 
state : ' There are lizards in it as big as cats, but they 
are harmless, although very hideous to look at. ' " ^ 

We see, then, that the navigators of Juba visited the 
Canaries^ at an early period, as Strabo testifies was the 
case with the Phenicians, who doubtless built the temple 
in the island of Junonia. And, for aught we know, 
early navigators may have passed over to the Western 
continent and laid the foundation of those strange nations 
whose monuments still remain. Both Phenician and 
Tyrian voyages to the Western Continent, have been 
warmly advocated ; while Lord Kingsborough published 
his magnificent volumes on the Mexican Antiquities, to 
show that the Jews settled this continent at an early day.^ 
And if it is true that all the tribes of the earth sprang 
from one central Asiatic family, it is more than likely 
that the original inhabitants of the American continent 
crossed the Atlantic, instead of piercing the frozen regions 
of the north, and coming in by the way of Behring Straits. 
From the Canaries to the coast of Florida, it is a short 
voyage, and the bold sailors of the Mediterranean, after 



* Prince Henry the Navigator, p. 137. 

* After this mention by Pliny, the Canaries, or Fortunate Isles, are lost 
sijsrht of for a period of thirteen hundred years. In the reign of Edward 
III of England, at the beginning of the fourteenth century, one Robert 
Machin sailed from Bristol for France, carrying away a lady of rank, who 
had eloped with him, and was driven by a storm to the Canaries, where he 
landed, and thus rediscovered the lost Fortunate Isles. This fact is curi- 
ou-sly established by Major, in the Life of Prince Henry, so that it can no 
longer be regarded as an idle tale (see pp. 66-77). In 1341, a voyage was 
also made to the Canaries, under the auspices of King Henry of Portugal. 
The report, so widely circulated by De Barros, that the islands were 
rediscovered by Prince Henry is therefore incorrect. His expedition 
reached Porto Santo and Madeira in 1418-20. 

^ He also speculates upon the probability of this continent having been 
visited by Christian missionaries. See vol. vi, p. 410. 




xviii PRE-COLUMBIAN DISCOVERY OF 

touching at the Canaries, need only spread their sails 
before the steady-breathing monsoon, to find themselves 
wafted safely to the western shore. 



TRADITIONS. 

There was even a tradition that America was visited by 
St. Columba,^ and also by the Apostle St. Thomas,^ who 
penetrated even as far as Peru. This opinion is founded 
on the resemblance existing between certain rites and 
doctrines which seem to have been held in common by 
Christians and the early inhabitants of Mexico. The first 
Si^anish missionaries were surprised to find the Mexicans 
bowing in adoration before the figure of the cross, and 
inferred that these people were of a Christian origin. Yet 
the inference has no special value, when we remember 
that Christianity is far less ancient than the symbol of the 
cross, which also existed among the Egyptians and other 
ancient people. 

Claims have also been made for the Irish. Broughton 
brings forward a passage in which St. Patrick is repre- 
sented as sending missionaries to the Isles of America.^ 
Another claim has been urged of a more respectable 
character, which is supported by striking, though not 
conclusive allusions in the chronicles of the Korth, in which 
a distant land is spoken of as " Ireland the Great." The 
Irish, in the early times, might easily have passed over to 
the Western continent, for which voyage they undoubtedly 
had the facilities. And Professor Rafn, after alluding to 
the well known fact that the ISTorthmen were preceded 
in Iceland by the Irish, says, that it is by no means 



* Kingsborough's Mexican Antiquities, vol. vi, p. 385. 
■ Ibid., p. 332. 

^ Monadikon Britannicum, pp. 131-2-187-8. The fact that the Avord 
America is here used, seems qviite sutiident to upset tlie legend. 



AMERICA BY THE NORTHMEN. xiX 

improbable that the Irish should also have anticipated 
them in America. The Irish were a sea-faring people, 
and have been assigned a Phenician origin by Moore and 
others who have examined the subject.^ If this is so, the 
tradition would appear to be some what strengthened. 
Even as early as the year 296, the Irish are said to have 
invaded Denmark with a large fleet. In 396, Niall made 
a descent upon the coast of Lancashire with a con- 
siderable navy, where he was met by the Roman, Sti- 
licho, whose achievements were celebrated by Claudian 
in the days of the Roman occupation of England. At that 
period the Irish were in most respects in advance of the 
ISTorthnien, not yet having fallen into decline, and quite 
as likely as any people then existing to brave the dangers 
of an ocean voyage.^ The Icelandic documents, possibly 
referring to the Irish, will be given in their proper place, 
and in the meanwhile it need only to be added that the 
quotation given by Beamish from such an authority as 
the Turkish Spy will hardly tend to strengthen their 
claims, especially where its author, John Paul Marana, 
says that in Mexico " the British language is so pre- 
valent," that "the very towns, bridges, beasts, birds, 



' The Irish were early known as Scots, and O'Halloi-an derives the name 
from Scota, high priest of Phcenius, and ancestor of Mileseiiis. 
Me quoque vicins pereuntem gentibus, inquit, 
Munivit Stilicho. Totam cum Scotus lernem, 
Movit et infesto spuma-\it remige Thetys. 

By him defended , when the neighboring hosts 
Of warlike nations spread along our coasts ; 
When Scots came thundering from the Irish shores. 
And the wide ocean foamed with hostile oars. 
^ Speaking of Britain and Ireland, Tacitus says of the latter, that " the 
approaches and harbors are better known, by reason of commerce and the 
merchants." — Vit. AgrL, c. 24. The Irish, doubtless, mingled with the 
Carthagenians in mercantile transactions, and from them they not unlikely 
received the rites of Druidisni. 



XX PRE-COLUMBIAN DISCOVERY OF 

rivers, hills, etc., are called by the British or "Welch ^ 
names." ^ In truth, as the wish is so ofteu father to the 
thought, it would be an easy task to find resemblance in 
the languages of the aborigines to almost any language 
that is spoken in our day. 

But notwithstanding the probabilUics of the case, we 
have no solid reason for accepting any of these alleged 
voyages as facts. Much labor has been given to the 
subject, yet the early history of the American continent 
is still veiled in mystery, and not until near the close of 
the tenth century of the present era can we pcrint to a 
genuine trans-Atlantic voyage. 

THE NORTHMEN. 

The first voyage to America, of which we have any 
account, was performed by Northmen. But who were the 
ISTorthmen ? ' 

The Northmen were the descendants of a race that in 
early times migi-ated from Asia and traveled towards the 
north, finally settling in what is now the kingdom of Den- 
mark. From thence they overran Norway and Sweden, and 
afterwards colonized Iceland and Greenland. Their lan- 
guage was the old Danish [Donsk tunga) once spoken all 
over the north,^ but which is now preserved in Iceland 
alone, being called the Icelandic or old North,* upon 



^ As the tradition of a Weleli voyage to America under Prince Madoc, 
relates to a period following the Icelandic voyages, the author does not 
deem it necessary to discuss the subject. This voyage by the son of Owen 
Gwyneth, is fixed for the year 1170, and is based on a Welch chronicle of 
no authority. See Hackluyt, vol. iii, ]). 1. 

- 'furkish Spy, vol. vrii, p. 159. 

^ See " Northmen in Iceland," Societd des Antiquaives du JVord, Seduce 
du 14 Mai, 1859, pp. 12-14. 

*It is sometimes, though imin-operly, called the Norse. 



AMERICA BY THE NORTHMEN. xxi 

which is founded the modern Swedish, Danish and Norse 
or ITorwegian. 

After the Northmen had pushed on from Denmark to 
Norway, the condition of public affairs gradually became 
such that a large portion of the better classes found their 
life intolerable. In the reign of Harold Harfagr (the 
Fair-haired), an attempt was made by the king to deprive 
the petty jarls of their ancient udal or feudal rights, and 
to usurp all authority for the crown. To this the proud 
jarls would not submit; and, feeling themselves degraded 
in the eyes of their retainers, they resolved to leave those 
lands and homes which they could now hardly call their 
own. Whither, then, should they go ? 

THE COLONIZATION OF ICELAND. 

In the cold north sea, a little below the arctic circle, lay 
a great island. As early as the year 860, it had been 
made known to the Northmen by a Dane of Swedish 
descent named Gardar, who called it Gardar's island, 
and four years later by the pirate Nadodd, who sailed 
thither in 864 and called it Snowland. Presenting in the 
main the form of an irregular elipse, this island occupies 
an area of about one hundred and thirty-seven square 
miles, affording the dull diversity of valleys without ver- 
dure and mountains without trees.^ Desolation has there 
fixed its abode. It broods among the dells, and looks 
down upon the gloomy fiords. The country' is threaded 
with streams and dotted with tarns, yet the geologist finds 
but little evidence in the structure of the earth to point to 
the action of water. On the other hand, every rock and 
hillside is covered with signs that prove their igneous 



'In the time Avlieu the Irish monks occupied the island, it is said that it 
was " covered with woods between the mountains and the shores." 



xxii PRE-COLUMBIAN DISCOVERY OF 

origin, and indicate that the entire island, at some distant 
period, has ah*eady seethed and bubbled in the fervent 
heat, in anticipation of the long promised Paling enesia. 
Even now the ground trembles in the throes of the earth- 
quake, the Geyser spouts scalding water, and the plain 
belches mud; while the great jokuU, clad in white robes of 
eternal snow — true priest of Ormuzd — brandishes aloft 
its volcanic torch, and threatens to be the incendiary of 
the sky. 

The greater portion of the land forms the homestead of 
the reindeer and the fox, who share their domain with the 
occasional white bear that may float over from Greenland 
on some berg. Only two quadrupeds, the fox and the 
moose, are indigenous. Life is here purchased with a 
struggle. Indeed the neighboring ocean is more hospitable 
than the dry land, for of the thirty-four species of mam- 
malia twenty-four find their food in the roaring main. 
The same is true of the feathered tribes, fifty-four out of 
ninety being water fowl. Here and there may be seen 
patches of meadow and a few sheep pastures and tracts of 
arable land warmed into fruitfulness by the brief summer's 
si^n ; yet, on the whole, so poor is the soil that man, like 
the lower orders, must eke out a scanty subsistence by 
resorting to the sea. 

It was towards this land, which the settlers called Ice- 
land, that the proud ISTorweglan jarl turned his ej^es, and 
there he resolved to found a home. 

The first settler was Ingolf. He approached the coast 
in the year 875, threw overboard his seat-posts,^ and 



^ Setstakkar. These were wooden ])illars carv'ed with images usually of 
Thor and Odin. In selecting a place for a settlement these were flung 
overboard, and wherever they were thrown up on the beach, there the 
settlement was to be formed. Ingolf, the first Norse settler of Iceland, 
lost sight of the seat-posts after they were thrown into the water, and was 
obliged to live for the space of three years at Ingolfshofdi. In another 



AMERICA BY THE NORTHMEN. xxiii 

waited to see them toiicli the land. But in this he was 
disappointed, and those sacred columns, carved with the 
images of the gods, drifted away from sight. He never- 
theless landed on a pleasant promontory at the south- 
eastern extremity of the island, and built his habitation on 
the spot which is called Ingolfshofdi to this day. Three 
years after, his servants found the seat-posts in the south- 
western part of the island, and hither, in obedience to 
what was held to be the expressed wish of the gods, he 
removed is household, laying the foundation of Keikia- 
vik, the capital of this ice-bound isle. He was rapidly 
followed by others, and in a short time no inconsiderable 
population was gathered here. 

But the first settlers did not find this barren country 
entirely destitute of human beings. Ari Frode,^ than 
whom there is no higher authority, says : " Then were 
here Christian people, whom the Northmen called papas, 
but they afterwards went away, because they would not be 
here among heathens ; and left behind them Irish books. 



case a settler did not find liis posts for twelve years, nevertheless he changed 
his abode then. In Frithiof's Saga (American edition) chap, iii, p. 18, we 
find the following allusion : 

"Through the whole length of the hall shone forth the table of oak wood, 
Brighter than steel, and polished ; the pillars twain of the high seats 
Stood on each side thereof ; two gods deep carved out of elm wood : 
Odin with glance of a king, and Frey with the sun ou his forhead." 

^Ari Hinn Erode, or the Wise. The chief compiler of the famous 
Landnamn Book, which contains a full account of all the earlj- settlers in 
Iceland. It is of the same character, though vastly superior to the English 
Doomsday Book, and is probably the most complete record of the kind ever 
made by any nation. 

It contains the names of 3000 persons, and 1,400 places. It gives a 
correct account of the genealogies of the families, and brief notices of 
personal achievements. It was begun by Erode (born 10G7, died 1148), and 
was continued l)y Kalstegg, Styrmer and Thordsen, and completed by 
Hauk Erlandson, Lagman, or Governor of Iceland, who died in the year 
1384. 



xxiv PRE-COLUMBIAN DISCOVERY OF 

and bells, and croziers, from which it could be seen that 
they were Irishmen." He repeats substantially the same 
thing in the Landancana Book, the authority of which, no 
one acquainted with the subject, will question, adding that 
books and other relics were found in the island of Papey 
and Papyli, and that the circumstance is also mentioned 
in English books. The English writings referred to are 
those of the Venerable Bede. This is also stated in an 
edition of King Olaf Tryggvesson's Saga, made near the 
end of the fourteenth century.^ 

The monks or Culdees, who had come hither from 
Ireland and the Isles of lona, to be alone with God, all 
took their departure on the arrival of the heathen fol- 
lowers of Odin and Thor, and the Northmen were thus 
left in undisputed possession of the soil. In about twenty 
years the island became quite thickly settled, though the 
tide of immigration continued to flow in strongly for fifty 
years, so that at the beginning of the tenth century Ice- 
land possessed a population variously estimated from sixty 
to seventy thousand souls. But few undertook the voy- 
age who were not able to buy their own vessels, in which 
they carried over their own cattle, and thralls, and house- 
hold goods. So great was the number of people who left 
Norway at the outset that King Harold tried to prevent 
emigration by royal authority, though, as might have 
been predicted, his efforts were altogether in vain. Here, 
therefore, was formed a large community, taking the 

'" Thus saitli the holy i)rifst Bede Therefore learned men think tliat 

it is Iceland which is called Thule But the holy ])riest Bede died 

Dccxxxv. years after the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ, more than a 
hundred years before Iceland was inhabited by the Northmen." — Antiqui- 
tates Americana, p. 203. Tliis extract is followed by the statement of Ari 
Erode, and shows that the Irish Christians retired to Iceland at a very 
early day. The Irish monk Dicuil also refers to this solitary island, 
which, about the year 795, was visited by some monks with whom he 
had conversed. 



AMERICA BY THE NORTHMEN. 



XXV 



shape of an aristocratic republic, which framed its own 
laws, and for a long time maintained a genuine independ- 
ence, in opposition to all the assumptions and threats of 



the !N^orwegian king. 



THE SETTLEMENT OP GREENLAND. 

But as time passed on, the people of Iceland felt a new 
impulse for colonization in strange lands, and the tide of 
emigration began to tend towards Greenland in the 
west. This was chiefly inaugurated by a man named Eric 
the Red, born in JSTorway in the year 935. On account 
of manslaughter, he was obliged to flee from Jardar and 
take up his abode in Iceland. The date of removal to 
Iceland is not given, though it is said that at the time 
the island was very generally inhabited. Here, however, 
he could not live in peace, and early in the year 982, he 
was again outlawed for manslaughter by the public Thnio- 
and condemned to banishment. He accordingly fitted out 
a ship, and announced his determination to go in search 
of the land lying in the ocean at the west, which, it was 
said, Gunnbiorn,^ Ulf Krage's son, saw, when, in the year 
876, he was driven out to sea by a storm. Eric sailed 
westward and found land, where he remained and explored 
the country for three years. At the end of this period he 
returned to Iceland, giving the newly discovered land the 
name of Greenland,^ in order, as he said, to attract settlers, 



'All the information whicli we posses.s relating to the discovery by 
Gunnbiorn is given in the body of this \v(jrk, in extracts from Landanama- 
bok. 

^Claudius Christophessan, the author of some Danish verses relatino- to 
the history of Greenland, supposes that Greenland was discovered in the 
year 770, though he gave no real reason for his belief. M. Peyrere also 
tells us of a Papal Ball, issued in 835, by Gregory IV, which refers to the 
conversion of the Icelanders and Grejnlanders. Yet this is beyond question 
J) 



xxvi PRE-COLUMBIAN DISCOVERY OF 

who would be favorably impressed by so pleasing a 
name. 

The Slimmer after his return to Iceland, he sailed once 
more for Greenland, taking with him a fleet of thirty -five 
ships, only fourteen of which reached their destination, 
the rest being either driven back or lost. This event took 
place, as the Saga says, fifteen winters ^ before the intro- 
duction of Christianity into Iceland, which we know was 
accomplished in the year A. D. 1000. The date of Eric's 
second voyage must therefore be set down at 985.^ 

But, before proceeding to the next step in Icelandic 
adventure, it will be necessary to give a brief sketch of 
the progress of the Greenland colony, together with a 
relation of the circumstances which led to its final extinc- 
tion. 



THE PROGRESS OF THE GREENLAND COLONIES. 

There is but little continuity in the history of the 
Icelandic occupation of Greenland. We have already 
seen that the second voyage of Eric the Red took place in 
the year 985. Colonists appear to have followed him in 
considerable numbers, and the best portions of the land 
were soon appropriated by the principal men, who gave 
the chief bays and capes names that indicated the occu- 
pants, following the example of Eric, who dwelt in Brat- 
tahlid, in Ericsfiord. 

In the year 999, Leif, son of Eric, sailed out to Norway 
and passed the winter at the court of King Olaf Tryggves- 
son, where he accepted the Christian faith, which was 
then being zealously propagated by the king. He was 



a fraud. Gunnbiorn was luidoubtedlj- tlie first to gain a g-limpso of (frecn- 
land. 

' The Nortlimon reckoned by vinters. 

■^ See the Saga of Eric the Red. 



AMERICA BY THE NORTHMEN. xxvii 

accordingly baptized, and when the spring returned the 
king requested him to undertake the introduction of 
Christianity in Greenland, urging the consideration that 
no man was better qualified for the task. Accordingly he 
set sail from l!^orway, with a priest and several members 
of the religious order, arriving at Brattahlid, in Green- 
land, without any accident.^ His pagan father was 
incensed by the bringing in of the Christian priest, which 
act he regarded as pregnant with evil; yet, after some 
persuasion on the part of Leif, he renounced heathenism 
and nominally accepted Christianity, being baptized by 
the priest. His wife Thorhild made less opposition, and 
appears to have received the new faith with much willing- 
ness. One of her first acts was to build a church, which 
was known far and wide as Thorhild's church.^ These 
examples appear to have been very generally followed, 
and Christianity was adopted in both Iceland and Green- 
land at about the same period,^ though its acceptance 
did not immediately produce any very radical change in 
the spiritual life of the people. In course of time a num- 
ber of churches were built, the ruins of which remain 
down to our own day. 

In the year 1003, the Greenlanders became tributary to 
Norway. The principal settlement was formed on the 
western coast, and what was known as the eastern district, 
did not extend farther than the southern extremity towards 

^The statement, found in several places, that lie discovered Viulaud 
while on his way to Greenland, is incorrect. The full account of his voy- 
ages shows that his Vinland voyage was an entirely sei^arate thing. 

^ The author designs shortly to give some full account of the early Christ- 
ianity on the Western Continent in a separate Avork, now well advanced 
towards completion. It Avill include both the Pre and Pos<-Columbian 
eras. 

^ Gissur the White and Ilialtc, went on the same errand to Iceland in 
the year 1000, when tlie new religion was formally adopted at tlu; pul)lic 
Thnior. 



XXviii PRE-COLUMBIAN DISCOVERY OF 

Cape Farewell. For a long time it was supposed that 
the east district was located on the eastern coast of 
Greenland ; but the researches of Captain Graah, whose 
expedition went out under the auspices of the Danish 
government, proved very conclusively that no settlement 
ever existed on the eastern shore, which for centuries has 
remained blocked up by vast accumulations of ice that 
floated down from the arctic seas. In early times, as we 
are informed by the Sagas, the eastern coast was more 
accessible, j^et the western shores w^ere so superior in their 
attractions that the colonist fixed his habitation there. 
The site of the eastern settlement is that included in the 
modern district of Julian's Hope, now occupied by a 
Danish colony. The western settlement is represented 
by the habitation of Frederikshab, Godthaab, Sukkertop- 
pen and Holsteinborg. 



THE ORGANIZATION OF THE CHURCH. 

In process of time the Christians in Greenland multiplied 
to such an extent, both by conversions and by the immi- 
gration from Iceland, that it was found necessary, in 
the beginning of the twelfth century to take some measures 
for -the better government of the church, especially as 
they could not hope much for regular visits from the 
bishops of Iceland. They therefore resolved to make an 
effort to secure a bishop of their own. Eric Gnupson, of 
Iceland, was selected for the office, and proceeded to 
Greenland about the year 1112, without being regularly 
consecrated. He returned to Iceland in 1120, and after- 
wards went to Denmark, where he was consecrated in 
Lund, by Archbishop Adzer. Yet he probably never 
returned to his duties in Greenland, but soon after 



AMERICA BY THE NORTHMEN. xxix 

resigned that bishopric and accepted another/ thus leav- 
ing Greenland without a spiritual director. 

In the year 1123, Sokke, one of the principal men of 
Greenland, assembled the people and represented to them 
that both the welfare of the Christian faith and their own 
honor demanded that they should follow the example of 
other nations and maintain a bishop. To this view they 
gave their unanimous approval ; and Einar, son of Sokke, 
was appointed a delegate to the court of King Sigurd, of 
!N'orway. He carried a present of ivory and fur, and a 
petition for the appointment of a bishop. His mission 
was successful, and in the year 1126 Arnald, the succes- 
sor of Eric,^ came into Greenland, and set up the Episcopal 
seat at Gardar.^ Torfceus and Baron Holberg,* give a 
list of seventeen bishops who ruled in Greenland, ending 
with Andrew. The latter was consecrated and went 
thither in 1408, being never heard of afterwards. 

The history of Old Greenland is found in the Ecclesias- 
tical Annals, and consists of a mere skeleton of facts. As 
in Iceland and Norway there was no end of broils and 
bloodshed. A very considerable trade was evidently 
carried on between that country and N"orway, which is 
the case at the present time with Denmark. As the land 
aiibrded no materials for ships, they depended in a great 
measure upon others for communication with the mother 
countries, which finally proved disastrous. 



^It will be seen hereafter that he went and established himself in 
Vinland. 
^ See Memoires des Antiquaires du Nord, p. 383. 

^ The location of Gardar is now uncertain. At one time it was supposed 
to have been situated on the eastern coast ; b^t since it became so clear 
that the east coast was never inhabited, that view has been abandoned, 
though the name appears in old ma[)s. 

■* See Crantz's Greenland, vol. i, p. 253. 



XXX PRE-COLUMBIAN DISCOVERY OF 



MONUMENTS AND RUINS. 

Their villages and farms were numerous. Togetlier 
they probably numbered several hundred, the ruins now 
left being both abundant and extensive. Near Igaliko, 
which is supposed to be the same as the ancient Einars- 
fiord, are the ruins of a church, probably the cathedral of 
Gardar. It is called the Kakortok church. It was of 
simple but massive architecture, and the material was 
taken from the neighboring clifts. The stone is rough 
hewn, and but few signs of mortar are visible. It is fifty- 
one feet long and twenty-five wide. . The north and 
south walls are over four feet thick, while the end walls 
are still more massive. 

Nor are other monuments wanting. At Igalikko, nine 
miles from Julian's Hope, a Greenlander being one day 
employed in obtaining stones to repair his house, found 
among a pile of fragments a smooth stone that bore, 
what seemed to him, written characters. He mentioned 
the circumstance to Mr. Mathieson, the colonial director 
at Julian's Hope, who inferred that it must be a runic 
stone. He was so fortunate as to find it afterwards, and 
he accordingly sent it to Copenhagen, where it arrived in 
the year 1830. The runes, which were perfectly distinct, 
showed that it was a tombstone. The inscription was 
translated as follows : 

"Vjgdis Mars Daughter Rests Here. 
May God Gladden Her Soul." 

Another found in 183.1, by the Rev. Mr. De Fries, princi- 
pal of the Moravian Mission, bore the following inscription 
in the runic letter: 

" Here Kests Hroar Kolgrimsson." 



AMERICA BY THE NORTHMEN. xxxi 

This stone, now in the museum at Copenhagen, was found 
built into the wall over the entrance of a Greenland house, 
having been taken for that purpose from a heap of ruins, 
about two miles north of Friederichsthal. This stone is 
more than three feet long, being eighteen inches wide in 
the narrowest part, and about five inches thick. It bears 
every sign of a high antiquity. 

But one of the most interesting remains which prove 
the Icelandic occupation of Greenland is the runic stone 
found by Parry, in 1824, in the island of Kingiktorsoak, 
lying in 72° 55' IST. and 56° 51' W. It contained a some- 
what lengthy inscription, and copies of it were sent to 
three of the first scholars of the age, Finn Magnusson, 
Professor Rask, and Dr. Bryniulfson, who, without consult- 
ation, at once arrived at the same conclusion and united 
in giving the following translation : 

"Erling Sighvatson and Biorn Thordarson and 

EiNDRID OdDSON, on SATURDAY BEFORE 

Ascension week, raised these 

MARKS and cleared 

ground. 1135.' 

The Icelandic colonists in Greenland do not appear to 
have been confined to a small portion of territory. We 
find considerable relating to this subject in the chronicle 
attributed to Ivar Bert,^ the steward of one of the bishops 
of Greenland; yet, though used extensively by Torfseus, 
modern researches in this country prove that it is in some 
respects faulty. In this chronicle, as in the Sagas, the 



' Tliese ittscriptions are all in fair runic letters, about which there can be 
no mistake, and are totally unlike the imaginary runes, amono; Avhich 
we may finally feel obliged to class those of the Dighton rock. 

^ Sec Egede's Greenland, p. xxv ; Crantz's Greenland, vol. i, i)p. 247-8 ; 
Purclias, Jfis Pilyrimes, vol. iii, p. 518 ; Antiquitatcs Americana', p. 800. 



XXxii PRE-COLUMBIAN DISCOVERY OF 

colonists are spoken of as possessing horses, sheep and 
oxen ; and their churches and religious houses appear to 
have been well supported. 



EXPLORATIONS IN GREENLAND. 

Much was done, it appears, in the way of exploring the 
extreme northern portions of the country known as 
Nordrsetur. In the year 1266, a voyage was made under the 
auspices of some of the priests, and the adventurers pene- 
trated north of Lancaster sound, reachifig about the 
same latitude that was attained by Parry in 1827. This 
expedition was of sutficient importance to justify some 
notice of it here. The account is found in Antiquitates 
AmericaiKE (p. 269), and it sets out with the statement that 
the narrative of the expedition was sent by Haldor, a 
priest, to Arnald, the chaplain of King Magnus in Nor- 
way. They sailed out of Kroksfiardarheidi in an open 
boat, and met with southerly winds and thick weather, 
which forced them to let the boat drive before the wind. 
When the weather cleared, they saw a number of islands, 
together with whales and seals and bears. They made 
their way into the most distant portion of the sea, and saw 
glaciers south of them as far as the eye could reach. 
They also saw indications of the natives, who were called 
Skrasllings, but did not land, on account of the number of 
the bears. They therefore put about, and laid their 
course southward for nearly three days, finding more 
islands, with traces of the natives. They saw a mountain 
which they call Snpefell, and on St. James day, July 25, 
they had a severe weather, being obliged to row much and 
very hard. It froze during the night in that region, but 
the sun was above the horizon both day and night. When 
the sun was on the southern meridian, and a man lay down 
crosswise in a six-oared boat, the shadow of the gunwale 



AMERICA BY THE NORTHMEN. xxxiii 

towards the sun would reach as far as his feet, which, of 
course, indicates that the sun was very low. Afterwards 
they all returned in safety to Gardar.^ Rafn fixes the 
position of the point attained by the expedition in the 
parallel of 75° 46'. Such an achievement at that day 
indicates a degree of boldness quite surprising. 

THE DECLINE OF GREENLAND. 

Of the reality and importance of the Greenland colony 
there exists no doubt, notwithstanding the records are so 
meagre and fragraentar3^^ It maintained its connection 
with the mother countries for a period of no less than four 
hundred years ; yet it finally disappeared and was almost 
forgotten. 

The causes which led to the suspension of communication 
were doubtless various, though it is difiicult to account for 
the utter extinction of the colony, which does not appear 
ever to have been in much danger from the Skrsellings. 
On one occasion, in 1349 or later, the natives attacked the 
western settlement, it is said, and killed eighteen Green- 
landers of Icelandic lineage, carrying away two boys captives. 

We hear from the eastern colony as late as the middle 
of the fifteenth century. Trade was carried on with 
Denmark until nearly the end of the fourteenth century, 
although the voyages were not regular. The last bishop, 
Andreas, was sent out in 1406, and Professor Finn Mag- 
nussen has established the fact that he ofliciated in the 
cathedral at Gardar in 1409.^ 



' Antiquitates Americana, \^. xxxix. 

" For the account of the manuscripts upon which our knowledge of Green- 
land is founded, see Antiquitates Americana', p. 255. 

" In that year parties are known to have contracted marriage at Gardar, 
from whom Finn Magnussen and other distinguished men owe their 
descent. 

E 



XXxiv PRE-COLUMBIAN DISCOVERY OF 

From this time the trade between ISTorway and Green- 
land appears to have been given up, though Wormius 
told Peyrere of his having read in a Danish manuscript 
that down to the year 1484 there was a company of more 
than forty sailors at Bergen, in ISTorway, who still traded 
with Greenland.^ But as the revenue at that time belonged 
to Queen Margaret of Denmark, no one could go to Green- 
land without the royal permission. One company of 
sailors who were driven upon the Greenland coast, came 
near suifering the penalty of the law on their return. 
Crantz ^ says, that " about the year 1530, Bishop Amund 
of Skalholt in Iceland is said to have been driven by a 
storm, on his return from Norway, so near the coast of 
Greenland by Heriulfness, that he could see the people 
driving in their cattle. But he did not land, because just 
then a good wind arose, which carried the ship the same 
night to Iceland. The Icelander, Biogrnvon Skardfa, who 
relates this, also says further, that a Hamburgh mariner, 
Jon Greenlander by name, was driven three times on the 
Greenland island, where he saw such fisher's huts for 
drying fish as they have in Iceland, bat saw no men; 
further, that pieces of shattered boats, nay, in the year 
1625, an entire boat, fastened together with sinews 
and wooden pegs, and pitched with seal blubber, have 
been driven ashore at Iceland from time to time; and 
since then they found once an oar with a sentence written 
in Runic letters : ' Oft var ek dasa, dur elk drothik,' that is, 
' Oft was I tired when I drew thee.' " ^ 



' Egede's OTcenland, p. xlvii. 

"^ Ibid., xlviii. 

^Crautz's Greenland, vol. i, p. 2G4. 



AMERICA BY THE NORTHMEN. xXXV 



LOST GREENLAND FOUND. 



But, whatever may be the value of the preceding extract, 
it is clear that Greenland was never wholly forgotten. The 
first person who proposed to reopen communication was 
Eric Walkendorf, Archbishop of Drontheim, who familiar- 
ized himself with the subject, and made every preparation 
necessary in order to reestablish the colony; but, having 
fallen under the displeasure of King Christian II, he left 
the country and went to Rome, where he died in the year 
1521. Thus his plans came to nothing.^ Christian III 
abrogated the decree of Queen Margaret, prohibiting trade 
with Greenland without the royal permission, and encour- 
aged voyages by fitting out a vessel to search for Green- 
land, which, however, was not found. In 1578, Frederic II 
sent out Magnus Henningsen. He came in sight of the 
land, but does not appear to have had the courage to 
proceed further. Crantz, in his work on Greenland, gives 
an account of a number of voyages undertaken to the coast, 
but says that " at last Greenland was so buried in oblivion 
that one hardly would believe that such a land as Green- 
land was inhabited by Christian Norwegians." ^ 

It remained, therefore, for Hans Egede,^ in 1721, to 
reopen communication, and demonstrate the reality of the 
previous occupation. Columbus himself did not meet 
with greater trials and mortification than did this good 
man for the space of eleven years, during which period he 
labored to persuade the authorities to undertake the redis- 
covery. But his faith and zeal finally overcame all 



' Crantz's Oreenland, p. 374. 

"^ Ibid., p. 279. 

^Haiis Egcde was a clergyman in priest's orders, and minister of the 
congregation at Vogen in tlie northern ]mrt of Norway, where he was 
highly esteemed and 1)o1ov(h1. He spent fifteen years as a missionary in 
(jireenlaud, and died at Copenhagen, 1758. 



XXXvi PKE-COLUMBIAN DISCOVERY OF 

hostility and ridicule, and on the second day of May, 
1721, he went on board the Hope, with his wife and four 
young children, and landed at Ball's river in Greenland 
on the third of the following month. Here he spent the 
best portion of his life in teaching the natives Christianity, 
which had been first introduced seven centuries before, 
and in making those explorations the results of which 
filled the mind of Europe with surprise, and afforded a 
confirmation of the truthfulness of the Icelandic Sagas. 



THE CHARACTER AND ACHIEVEMENTS OF THE NORTHMEN. 

Let us now return to the consideration of the Ice- 
landic voyages to the American Continent, though not 
without first seeking a better acquaintance with the men 
by whom they were performed. 

We have already seen that the l^orthmen were a people 
of no inferior attainments. Indeed, they constituted the 
most enterprising portion of the race, and, on general 
principles, we should therefore view them as fitted even 
above all the men of their time for the important work 
of exploration beyond the seas. They had made them- 
selves known in every part of the civilized world ^ by their 
daring as soldiers and navigators. Straying away into 
the distant east from whence they originally came, we see 
them laying the foundation of the Russian empire, swing- 
ing their battle-axes in the streets of Constantinople, 
carving their mystic runes upon the Lions of the Areopa- 
gus, and filling the heart of even the great Charlemagne 
with dismay. Says Dasent, when summing up their 
achievements : " In Byzantium they are the leaders of the 
Greek emperor's body guard, and the main support of his 



'The motto on the sword of Rojrcr CJuiHCiird wiis: 

" Aj>pulnH et Cdlaher Sioilxs mild Scrvit et, Afcr." 



AMERICA BY THE NORTHMEN. XXXvii 

tottering throne. From France, led by Rollo, they tear 
away her fairest province and found a long line of kings. 
In Saxon England they are the bosom friends of such kings 
as Athelstane, and the sworn foes of Ethelred the Unready. 
In Danish England they are the foremost among the 
thanes of Canute, Swein and Hardicanute, and keep down 
the native population with an iron heel. In Norman 
England," he continues, " the most serious opposition the 
conqueror meets with is from the colonists of his own 
race settled in I^orthumbria. He wastes their lands with 
fire and sword, and drives them across the border, where 
we still find their energy, their perseverance, and their 
speech existing in the lowland Scotch. In l^orway they 
dive into the river with King Olaf Tryggvesson, the best 
and strongest champion of his age, and hold him down 
beneath the waves so long that the bystanders wonder 
whether either king or Icelander will ever reappear on 
the surface.' Some follow Saint Olaf in his crusades 
against the old [pagan] faith.^ Some are his obstinate 
foes, and assist at his martyrdom. Many follow Harold 
the Stern to England when he goes to get his ' seven feet ' 
of English earth, and almost to a man they get their 
portion of the same soil, while their names grow bright 
in song and story." And finally, " From Iceland as a 
base, they push on to Greenland and colonize it : nay, the}'- 
discover America in those half-decked barks." ^ 

THE SHIPS OF THE NORTHMEN. 

The Northmen were excellent navigators. They were, 
moreover, it has been claimed, the first to learn the art 
of sailing on the wind. They had good sea-going vessels, 

'See Laiug's Ucimskringla, vol. ii, p. 450. Tliis refcM-s to his swiiinnino!- 
match with Kiarten the Icelander, in whicli the kin<«; was beaten. 
' See Saga of Saint (not king) Olaf. 
^ Di'H Aiitii/ii<(lrct< du Nm-d, 185!(. 



XXXViii PRE-COLUMBIAN DISCOVERY OF 

some of which were of large size. "We have an account 
in the Saga of Olaf Tryggvesson of one that in some 
respects was remarkable. It is said that " the winter after 
King Olaf Tryggvesson came from Halogeland. He had a 
great ship built at Ledehammer,^ which was larger than 
any ship in the country, and of which the beam-knees are 
still to be seen. The length of the keel that rested upon 
the grass was seventy-four ells. Thorberg Skafting was 
the man's name who was the master builder of the ship, 
but there were many others besides; some to fell the 
wood, some to shape it, some to make nails, some to carry 
timber, and all that was used was the best. The ship 
was both long and broad and high sided, and strongly 

timbered The ship was a dragon, built after the one 

that the king had captured in Halogaland, but it was 
far longer and more carefully put together in all her parts. 
The Long Serpent [her name] had thirty-four benches 
for rowers. The head and arched tail were both gilt, and 
the bulwarks were as high as in sea-going ships. This ship 
was the best and most costly ever built in Norway.'. ^ 



' Ledehamuier. The point of land near the house of Lede, j ust below 
Drontheim. 

- Laing's Heimskringla, vol. I, p. 457. It is related that wliile they were 
planking the ship, " it happened that Thorberg had to go home to his 
farm upon some urgent business ; and as he stayed there a long time, the 
sliip was planked upon both sides when he came back. In the evening the 
king went out and Thorberg with him, to see how the ship looked, and all 
said that never was seen so large and fine a ship of war. Then the king 
went back to the town. Early the next morning the king came back 
again to the ship, and Thorberg with him. The carpenters were there 
before them, but all were standing idle with their hands across. The king 
asked, " What is the matter ? " They said the sliip was ruined ; for some- 
body had gone from stem to stern, and cut one deep notch after another 
down the one side of the planking. When the king came nearer he saw 
that it was so, and said with an oath, 'The man shall die who has thus 
ruined the ship out of malice, if he can be found, and I will giv(! a great 
reward to him wlio finds him out.' 'I can tell von, king,' says Thorberg, 



AMERICA BY THE NORTHMEN. xxxix 

Laing computes the tonnage of this ship at about nine 
hundred and forty-two tons, thus giving a length of about 
one hundred feet, which is nearly the size of a forty-two 
gun ship. By steam tonnage it would give a capacity of 
a little less than three hundred tons, and one hundred and 
twenty horse power. We apprehend, however, that the 
estimate is sufficiently large; yet we are not concerned to 
show any great capacity for the Icelandic ships. All the 
vessels employed in the early times on the American 
coasts were small. Cabot sailed in Baffins Bay with a 
vessel of thirty tons; and the Anna Pink, the craft that 
accompanied Lord Anson in his expedition around the 
world, was only sixteen tons.^ The vessels possessed by 
the Is^orthmen were everyway adapted for an ocean voy- 
age. 

In nautical knowledge, also, they were not behind the 
age. The importance of cultivating the study of naviga- 
tion was fully understood. The Raudulf of Oesterdal, in 



' wlio lias done this piece of work.' ' I don't tliink that any one is so likely 
to find it out as thou art.' Thorberg says : ' I will tell you, king, who did 
it, I did it myself.' The king says, ' Thou must restore it all to the same 
condition as before, or thy life shall pay for it.' Then Thorberg went and 
chipped the planks until the deep notches were all smoothed and made 
even with the rest ; and the king and all present declared that the sliip 
was much handsomer on the side of the hull which Thorberg had chipped, 
and bade him shape the other side in the same way and gave him great 
thanks for the improvement." 

' A few years ago two very ancient vessels which probably belonged to 
the seventh century were exhumed on the coast of Denmark, seven thou- 
sand feet from the sea, where they were scuttled and sunk. The changes 
in the coast finally left them imbedded in the sand. One vessel was 
seventy-two feet long, and nine feet wide amid ships. The other was 
forty-two feet long, and contained two eight-sided spars, twenty -four feet 
long. The bottoms were covered with mats of withes for the i)uri)ose 
of keeping them dry. Among the contents was a Damascened sword, with 
runes, sho\ving that the letter existed among the Northmen in the seventh 
century. 



xl PRE-COLUMBIAN DISCOVERY OF 

Norway, taught his son to calculate the course of the sun 
and moon, and how to measure time by the stars. In 
1520 Olaus Magnus complained that the knowledge of the 
people in this respect had been diminished. In that noble 
work called Speculum Regale the Icelander is taught to 
make an especial study of commerce and navigation, of 
the divisions of time and the movements of the heavenly 
bodies, together with arithmetic, the rigging of vessels 
and morals} Without a high degree of knowledge they 
could never have achieved their eastern voyages. 

THE DISCOVERY OF AMERICA. 

We find that the Northmen were well acquainted with 
other parts of the world, and that they possessed all the 
means of reaching the continent in the west. We come, 
therefore, to the question : Did the Northmen actually 
discover and explore the coast of the country now known 
as America ? 

No one can say that the idea wears any appearance of 
improbability; for there is certainly nothing wonderful in 
the exploit. And after conceding the fact that the 
colonies of the Northmen existed in Greenland for at 
least three hundred years we must prepare ourselves for 
something of this kind. Indeed it is well nigh, if not 



' The people of Iceland were always noted for their superiority in this 
respect over their kinsmen in Denmark and Norway. There is one signi- 
ficant fact bearing on this point, wliich is this : that, while a few of the 
people of Iceland went at an early period to engage in piratical excursions 
with the vikings of Norway, not a single pirate ship ever sailed from 
Iceland. Such ways were condemned altogether at an early day, wliile 
various European nations continued to sanction ])iracy down to recent periods. 
Again it should be remembered that in Iceland duelling was also solenmly 
declared illegal as early as 1011, and in Norway the following year ; while 
in England it did not cease to be a part of the judicial i)rocess until 1818. 
Set! Sir Edmund Head's Viya-Glum Baga, p. 130. 



AMERICA BY THE NORTHMEN. xU 

altogether unreasonable, to suppose that a sea-faring people 
like the Northmen could live for three centuries within a 
short voyage of this vast continent, and never become 
aware of its existence. A supposition like this implies a 
rare credulity, and whoever is capable of believing it 
must be capable of believing almost anything. 

But on this point we are not left to conjecture. The 
whole decision, in the absence of monuments like those 
of Greenland, turns upon a question of fact. The point is 
this : Do the manuscripts which describe these voyages belong 
to the pre-Columbian age? If so, then the Northmen are 
entitled to the credit of the prior discovery of America. 
That these manuscripts belong to the pre-Columbian age, 
is as capable of demonstration as the fact that the writings 
of Homer existed prior to the age of Christ. Before 
intelligent persons deny either of these points they must 
first succeed in blotting out numberless pages of well 
known history. The manuscript in which we have ver- 
sions of all the Sagas relating to America is found in the 
celebrated Codex Flatoiensis, a work that was finished in 
the year 1387, or 1395 at the latest. This collection, made 
with great care and executed in the highest style of art, 
is now preserved in its integrity ^ in the archives of Copen- 
hagen. These manuscripts were for a time supposed to 
be lost, but were ultimately found safely lodged in their 
repository in the monastery library of the island of Flato, 
from whence they were transferred to Copenhagen with a 



'Thos3 who imagine that these manuscripts, while of pre-Columbian 
origin, have been tampered with and interpolated, show that they have not 
the faintest conception of the state of the question. The accounts of the 
voyages of the Northmen to America forni the framework of Sagas 
which would actually be destroyed by the elimination of the narratives. 
There is only one question to be decided, and that is the date of these 
compositions. 

F 



xlii PRE-COLUMBIAN DISCOVERY OF 

large quantity of other literary material collected from 
various localities. If these Sagas which refer to America 
were interpolatious, it would have early become apparent, 
as abundant means exist for detecting frauds ; yet those 
who have examined the whole question do not find any 
evidence that invalidates their historical statements. In 
the absence, therefore, of respectable testimony to the 
contrary, we accept it as a fact that the Sagas relating to 
America are the productions of the men who gave them 
in their present form nearly, if not quite, an entire century 
before the age of Columbus. 

It might also be argued, if it were at all necessary, that, 
if these Sagas were post-Columbian compositions drawn 
up by Icelanders who were jealous of the fame of the 
Geneose navigator, we should certainl}^ be able to point 
out something either in their structure, bearing, or style 
by which it would be indicated. Yet such is not the case. 
These writings reveal no anxiety to show the connection 
of the N^orthmen with the great land lying at the west. 
The authors do not see anything at all remarkable or 
meritorious in the explorations, which were conducted 
simply for the purpose of gain. Those marks which would 
certainly have been impressed by a more modern writer 
forging a historical composition designed to show an 
occupation of the country before the time of Columbus, 
are wholly wanting. There is no special pleading or 
rivalry, and no desire to show prior and superior know- 
ledge of the country to which the navigators had from 
time to time sailed. We only discover a straightforward, 
honest endeavor to tell the story of certain men's lives. 
This is done in a simple, artless way, and with every indi- 
cation of a desire to mete out even handed justice to all. 
And candid readers who come to the subject with minds 
free from prejudice, will be powerfully impressed with the 



AMERICA BY THE NORTHMEN. xliii 

belief that they are reading authentic histories written 
by honest men.^ 



THE LITERATURE OF ICELAND. 

Before speaking particularly of the substance of the 
Sagas it will be necessary to trace briefly the origin and 
history of Icelandic literature in general. 

We have already mentioned the fact that Iceland was 
mainly settled by Norwegians of superior qualities. And 
this superiority was always maintained, though it was some- 
what slow in manifesting itself in the form of literature. 
Prior to the year 1000, the Runic alphabet had existed in 
Iceland, but it was generally used for the simplest pur- 



'The fact that Mr. Bancroft lias in times past expressed opinions in 
opposition to tliis view will hardly have weight vfith. those persons familiar 
with the subject. When that writer composed the first chapter of his 
History of tJie United States, he might have been excused for setting down 
the Icelandic narratives as shadowy fables ; but, with all the knowledge 
shed upon the subject at present, we have a right to look for something 
better. It is therefore unsatisfactory to find him perpetuating Ms early 
views in each successive edition of the work, wliich show the same know- 
ledge of the subject betrayed at the beginning. He tells us that these 
voyages " rest on narratives mythological in form, and obscure in meaning," 
which certainly cannot be the case. Furthermore they are " not contempo- 
rary ; " which is true, even with regard to Mr. Bancroft's omn work. Again, 
" The chief document is an interpolation in the history of Sturleson." This 
cannot be true in the sense intended, for Mr. Bancroft conveys the idea that 
the principal narrative first appeared in Sturleson's history when published 
at a late day. It is indeed well known that one version, but not the 
principal version, was interpolated in Peringskiold's edition of Sturleson's 
Ileimskriiigla, printed at Copenhagen. But Bancroft teaches that these 
relations are of a modern date, while it is well known that they were taken 
verbatim from Codex Flatoiensis, finished in the year 1395. He is much 
mistaken in supposing that the northern Antiquarians think any more 
highly of the narratives in question, because thej' once happened to be 
printed in connection with Sturleson's great work. He tells us that Sturle- 
son "could hardly have neglected the discovery of a continent," if such an 
event had taken place. But this, it should be remembered, depends upon 



xliv PlIE-COLUMlilAN DlSCUVEilY OF 

poses.^ History and literature derived no advantage, as 
tlie runes were used chiefly for monumental inscriptions, 
and formottoes and charms on such things as drinking cups, 
sacrifical vessels and swords. Yet the people were not 
without a kind of intellectual stimulus. It had long been 
the custom to preserve family and general histories, and 
recite them from memory as occasion seemed to warrant. 
This was done with a wonderful degree of accuracy and 
fidelity, h}' men more or less trained for the purpose, and 
whose performances at times were altogether surprising. 
They also had their scalds or poets, who were accustomed 
Loth to repeat the old songs and poems and extemporize 



lohether or not the ducovery ims considered of any 'particiihir importance. 
Tliis does not appear to have been the case. The fact is nowliere dwelt upon 
for the piirpose of exaltintr the actors. Besides, as Laing well observes, 
the discovery of land at the west had nothing to do with his subject, which 
was the history of the kings of Norway. The discovery of America gave 
rise to a little traffic, and nothing more. Moreover the kings of Norway 
took no part, were not. the patrons of the navigators, and had no influence 
whatever in instituting a single voyage. Mr. Bancroft's last objection is 
that Vinland, the place discovered, " has been sought in all directions from 
Greenland and the St. Lawrence to Africa." This paragraph also con- 
veys a false view of the subject, since the location of Vinland was as 
well known to the Northmen as the situation of Ireland, with which island 
they had uninterrupted communication. It is to be earnestly hoped that 
in the next edition, Mr. Bancroft may be i)ersuaded to revise his unfounded 
opinions. 

Washington Irving has expressed the same doubt in his Life of Colum- 
bus, written before the means of examining this question were placed within 
his reach, and in the appendix of his work he mixes the idle tales of St. 
Brandan's Isle with the authentic histories of the Northmen. A very 
limited inquiry would have led him to a different estimate. 

' The word rune comes from ryn, a furrow. Odin has the credit of the 
invention, yet they are probably of Phenician origin. They were some- 
times used for poetical purposes. Halmund, in the Grettir Saga (see Sabing 
Baring Gould's Iceland), says to his daughter : " Thou shalt now listen 
whilst I relate my deeds, and sing thereof a song, which thou shalt after- 
wards cut upon a staflF." This indicates the training the memory must have 
undergone among the Northmini. 



AMERICA BY THE NORTHMEN. xlv 

new ones. Every good fighter was expected to prove 
himself a poet when the emergency required it. This pro- 
fession was strongly encouraged. When Ej'^vind Skialdes- 
pilder sang his great song in praise of Iceland every 
peasant in the island, it is said, contrihuted three pieces of 
silver to buy a clasp for his mantel of fifty marks weight. 
These scalds were sometimes employed by the politicians, 
and on one occasion a satire so nettled Harold, king of 
Denma.rk, that he sent a fleet to ravage the island, and 
made the repetition an offense punishable with death. 
These poets also went to England, to the Orkneys and to 
Norway, where at the king's court they were held in the 
highest estimation, furnishing poetical effusions on every 
public or private occasion which demanded the exercise of 
their gifts. The degree to which they had cultivated their 
memories was surprising. Old Blind Skald Stuf could 
repeat between two and three hundred poems without 
halting; while the Saga-men had the same power of 
memory, which we know may be improved to almost any 
extent by cultivation. But with the advent of Christianity 
came the Roman alphabet, which proved an easy method 
of expressing thought. Christianity, however, did not 
stop here. Its service was a reasonable service, and 
demanded of its votaries a high intelligence. The priest 
of Odin need do no more than to recite a short vow, or 
mutter a brief prayer. He had no divine records to read 
and to explain. But the minister of the new religion came 
with a system that demanded broader learning and cul- 
ture than that implied in extemporaneous songs. His 
calling required the aid of books, and the very sight of 
such things proved a mental stimulus to this hard-brained 
race. Besides, Christianity opened to the minds of the 
people new fields of thought. These rude sons of war soon 
began to understand there were certain victories, not to 
be despised, that might be gained through peace, and soon 



xlvi PRE-COLUMBIAN DISCOVERY OF 

letters came to be some what familiar to the public mind. 
The earliest written eflbrts very natm-ally related to the 
lives of the Saints, which on Sundays and holy days were 
read in public for the edification of the people. During 
the eleventh century these exercises shared the public 
attention with those of the professional Saga-man, who 
still labored to hand down the oral versions of the national 
history and traditions. But in the beginning of the 
twelfth century the use of letters was extended, and, ere- 
long, the Saga-man found his occupation gone, the national 
history now being diligently gathered up by zealous 
students and scribes and committed to the more lasting 
custody of the written page. Among these was Ari Frode, 
who began, the compilation of the Icelandic Dooms-day 
Book, which contained the records of all the early settlers. 
Scarcely less useful was Ssemund the Wise, who collected 
the poetical literature of the ITortli and arranged it in a 
goodly tome. The example of these great men was 
followed, and by the end of the twelfth century all the 
Sagas relating to the pagan period of the country had been 
reduced to writing. This was an era of great literary 
activity, and the century following showed the same zeal. 
Finally Iceland possessed a body of prose literature supe- 
rior in quantity and value to that of any other modern 
nation of its timc.^ Indeed, the natives of Europe at this 
period had no prose or other species of literature hardly 
worthy of the name ; and, taken altogether, the Sagas 
formed the first prose literature in any modern language 
spoken by the people.^ Says Sir Edmund Head, "ISTo 
doubt there were translations in Anglo-Saxon from the 
Latin, by Alfred, of an earlier date, but there was in truth 



'For a list of many Icelandic works, see the Introduction of Lainof's 
Ileimskringla. 

^See Sir Edmund Head's Vina (Mma Smjd, pp. viii and ix. 



AMERICA BY THE NORTHMEN. xlvii 

no vernacular literature. I cannot name," lie says, " any 
work in high or low German prose which can be carried 
back to this period. In France, prose writing cannot be 
said to have begun before the time of Villehardouin (1204), 
and Joinville (1202). Castilian prose certainly did not 
commence before the time of Alfonso X (1252). Don 
Juan Manvel, the author of the Conde Lucanor, was not 
born till 1282. The Cronica General de Espana was not 
composed till at least the middle of the thirteenth century. 
About the same time the language of Italy was acquiring 
that softness and strength which were destined to appear 
so conspicuously in the prose of Boccaccio, and the writers 
of the next century." ' 

Yet while other nations were without a literature the 
intellect of Iceland was in active exercise, and works were 
produced like the Midas and the Heimskrmgla, works 
which being inspired by a lofty genius will rank with the 
writings of Homer and Herodotus while time itself endures. 

But in the beginning of the sixteenth century the litera- 
ture of Iceland ultimately reached the period of its greatest 
excellence and began to decline. Books in considerable 
numbers always continued to be written, though works of 
positive genius were wanting. Yet in Iceland there has 
never been an absence of literary industry, while during 
the recent period the national reputation has been sus- 
tained by Finn Magnussen and similar great names. One 
hundred years before the Plymouth colonists, following in 
the track of Thorwald Ericson, landed on the sands of Cape 
Cod, the people of Iceland had set up the printing press, 
and produced numerous works both in the native language 
and the Latin tong-ue. 



' Ibid. Of course tliere was more or less poetry, yet poetry is somethino: 
that is early developed among the rudest nations, while good prose tells 
that a people have become highly advanced in mental culture. 



xlviii PRE-COLUMBIAN DISCOVERY OF 

It is to this people, whom Saxo Grammaticus points out 
as a people distinguished for their devotion to letters, that 
we are indebted for the narratives of the pre-Columbian 
voyages to America. Though first arranged for oral reci- 
tation, these Sagas were afterwards committed to manu- 
script, the earliest of which do not now exist, and were 
finally preserved in the celebrated Flato collection nearly 
a century before the rediscovery of America by Columbus. 

But it is no longer necessary to spend much time on 
this point, since the character and value of the Icelandic 
writings have come to be so generally acknowledged, and 
especially since scholars and antiquarians like Humbolt 
have fully acknowledged their authenticity and authority. 

It is proper to notice here the fact that not a few have 
imagined that the claims of the Northmen have been 
brought forward to detract from the fame of Columbus ; ^ 
yet, nothing could be farther from the truth, since no one 
denies that it was by the discovery of America by Colum- 
bus that the continent first became of value to the Old 
World. The Northmen came and went away without 
accomplishing any thing of lasting value ; yet, because the 
world at large derived no benefit from their discovery, it is 
certainly unjust to deny its reality. 



'As early as 1411, there was a considerable trade between Bristol and 
Iceland, and Columbus visited Iceland in tlie spring of the year 1477, where 
he might have met Magnus Eyolfson, the bishop of Skalholt, or learned 
from some other scholar the facts in relation to the early Icelandic dis- 
coveries. Though Rafn supposes that by his visit, his opinions, prcjviously 
formed regarding the existence of the Western continent, were confirmed, 
this is not altogether clear, for the reason that Columbus was not seeking 
a new continent, but a route to the Indies, wliich he believed he should 
find by sailing west. Accordingly when he found land he called it the 
West Indies, supposing that he had reached the extreme boundary of the 
East Indies. Irving tells us that Columbus founded his theory on (1), the 
nature of things ; (2), the authority of learned writers ; (8), tlie reports of 
navigators. 



AMERICA BY THE NORTHMEN. xlix 

The fact that the Northmen knew of the existence of 
the "Western Continent, prior to the age of Columbus, was 
prominently brought before the people of this country in 
the year 1837, when the Royal Society of iJ^orthern Anti- 
quarians at Copenhagen published their work on the 
Antiquities of IsTorth America, under the editorial supervi- 
sion of that great Icelandic scholar. Professor Rafn. But 
we are not to suppose that the first general account of 
these voyages was then given, for it has always been 
known that the history of certain early voyages to America 
by the IsTorthmen were preserved in the libraries of Den- 
mark and Iceland.^ Torfteus, as early as 1706, published 
his work on Greenland, which threw much light on the 
subject. We find accounts of these discoveries in the 
works of Egede and Crantz. A very intelligent sketch, 
at least for those times, was given by J. Reinhold Fors- 
ter, who frankly concedes the pre-Columbian discovery 
of America, in a History of the Voyages and Discoveries 
made in the North. Robertson speaks of them in his 
History of America, but says that he is unable to give an 



' Adam of Bremen even heard of the exploits of the Northmen in Vin- 
land, and made mention of that country. But as it might be said that his 
work did not appear vintil after the voyage of Colvxmbus, and that the 
reference may be an interpolation, the author does not rest anything upon 
it. Still he vmquestionably knew of the voyages of the Northmen, as he 
lived near the time they were made, and wrote his ecclesiastical history in 
about the year 1075, after he had made a visit to King Svveno of Denmark, 
and had accumulated much material. The passage in question is as 
follows : " Besides, it was stated [by the king] that a region had been dis- 
covered by many in that [the western] ocean, which was called Wiuland, 
because \anes grow there spontaneously, making excellent wine ; for that 
fruits, not planted, grow there of their own accord, we know not by false 
rumor, but by the certain testimony of the Danes." 

The very ancient Faroese ballad of Finn the Handsome (see Rafn's Anti- 
qiiUntes Amencanm, p. 319), also contains references to Vinland, which 
indicates that the country was known as well by the Irish as by the 
Icelanders. 



1 PRE-COLUMBIAN DISCOVERY OF 

intelligent opinion. Indeed, the most of the older and 
more comprehensive writers give the Northmen recogni- 
tion. Yet, owing to the fact that the Icelandic language, 
though simple in construction and easy of acquisition, was 
a tongue not understood hy scholars, the subject has 
until recent years been suffered to lie in the back ground, 
and permitted, through a want of interest, to share, in a 
measure, the treatment meted out to vague and uncertain 
reports. But the well-directed efforts of the Northern 
Antiquarians of Denmark, supported by the enlightened 
zeal of scholars and historians in England, France and 
Germany, have done much to dispel popular ignorance, 
and to place the whole question in its true bearing before 
the people of all the principal civilized nations. In our 
own country, the work of Professor Eafn, already alluded 
to, has created a deep and wide-spread conviction of the 
reality of the Northman's claim, and has elicited confes- 
sions like that of Palfrey, who is obliged to say of the 
Icelandic records that, " their antiquity and genuineness 
appear to be well established, nor is there anything to 
bring their credibility into question, beyond the general 
doubt which always attaches to what is new or strange." ^ 

THE NARRATIVES. 

It now remains to give the reader some general account 
of the contents of the narratives which relate more or less 
to the discovery of the Western continent. In doing this, 
the order followed will be that which is indicated by the 
table of contents at the beginning of the volume. 

The first extracts given are very brief. They are taken 
from the Landanama Book, and relate to the report in 
general circulation, which indicated one Gunnbiorn as the 



' History of New England, vol. ii, p. 53. 



AMERICA BY THE NORTHMEN. H 

discoverer of Greenland, an event whicli has been fixed 
at the year 876. These fragments also give an account of 
a voyage to what was called Gunnbiorn's Rocks, where 
the adventurers passed the winter, and found in a hole, or 
excavation, a sum of money, which indicated that others 
had been there before them. 

The next narrative relates to the rediscovery of Green- 
land by the outlaw, Eric the Red, in 983, who there passed 
three years in exile, and afterwards returned to Iceland. 
About the year 986, he brought out to Greenland a 
considerable colony of settlers, who fixed their abode at 
Brattahlid, in Ericsfiord. 

Then follows two versions of the voyage of Biarne 
Heriulfson, who, in the same year, 986, when sailing for 
Greenland, was driven away during a storm, and saw a 
new land at the southward, which he did not visit. 

'Next is given three accounts of the voyage of Leif, sou 
of Eric the Red, who in the year 1000 sailed from Brattah- 
lid to find the land which Biarne saw. Two of these 
accounts are hardly more than notices of the voyage, but 
the third is of considerable length, and details the successes 
of Leif, who found and explored this new land, where 
he spent the winter, returning to Greenland the following 
spring. 

After this follows the voyage of Thorvald Ericson, 
brother of Leif, who sailed to Vinland from Greenland, 
which was the point of departure in all these voyages. 
This expedition was begun in 1002, and it cost him his 
life, as an arrow from one of the natives pierced his side, 
causing death. 

Thorstein, his brother, went to seek Vinland, with the 
intention of bringing home his body, but failed in the 
attempt, and was driven back, passing the winter in a 
part of Greenland remote from Brattahlid, where he died 
before the spring fully opened. 



lii PRE-COLUMBIAN DISCOVERY OF 

The most distingnislied explorer was Thorfiun Karlsefne, 
the Hopeful, an Icelander whose genealogy runs back 
in the old Northern annals, through Danish, Swedish, and 
even Scotch and Irish ancestors, some of whom were of 
royal blood. In the year 1006 he went to Greenland, where 
he met Gudrid, widow of Thorstein, whom he married. 
Accompanied b}^ his wife, who urged him to the under- 
taking, he sailed to Vinland in the spring of 1007, with 
three vessels and one hundred and sixty men, where he 
remained three years. Here his son Snorre was born. He 
afterwards became the founder of a great family in Iceland, 
which gave the island several of its first bishops. Thorfinn 
finally left Vinland because he found it difficult to sustain 
himself against the attacks of the natives. They spent 
the most of their time in the vicinity of Mount Hope Bay 
in Rhode Island. Of this expedition we have three narra- 
tives, all of Avhich are given. 

The next to undertake a voyage was a wicked woman 
named Freydis, a sister to Leif Ericson, who went to Vin- 
land in 1011, where she lived for a time with her two 
ships' crews in the same places occupied by Leif and 
Thorfinn. Before she returned, she caused the crew of 
one ship to be cruelly murdered, assisting in the butchery 
with her own hands. 

After this we have what are called the Minor Narratives, 
which are not essential, yet they are given that the reader 
may be in the possession of all that relates to the subject. 
The first of these refers to a voyage of Are Marson to a 
land southwest of Ireland, called Hvitrammana-land, or 
Great Ireland, This was prior to Leif's voyage to Vin- 
land, or New England, taking place in the year 983. 
Biorn Asbrandson is supposed to have gone to the same 
place in 999. The voyage of Gudleif, who went thither, is 
assigned to the year 1027. The narrative of Asbrandson 
is given for the sake of the allusion at the close. 



AMERICA BY THE NORTHMEN. liii 

Finally we have a few scraps of history which speak of 
a voyage of Bishop Eric to Vinland in 1121, of the redis- 
covery of Helluland (Newfoundland) in 1285, and of a 
voyage to Markland (Nova Scotia) in 1347, whither the 
Northmen came to cut timber. With such brief notices 
the accounts come to an end. 



THE TRUTHFULNESS OF THE NARRATIVES. 

The reader will occasionally find in these narratives 
instances of a marvelous and supernatural character, but 
there is nothing at all mythological, as persons ignorant of 
their nature have supposed. Besides there are multitudes 
of narratives of a later date, to be found in all languages, 
which contain as many statements of a marvelous nature 
as these Sagas, which are nevertheless believed to contain a 
substantial and reliable ground-work of truth. All early 
histories abound in the supernatural, and these things are 
so well known that illustrations are hardly needed here. 
The relation of prodigies in no wise destroys the credibility 
of historical statement. If this were not so, we should be 
obliged to discard the greater portion of well known 
history, and even suspect plain matters of fact in the 
writings of such men as Dr. Johnson, because that great 
scholar fully believed in the reality of an apparition known 
in London as the Cock-Lane Ghost. The Sagas are as 
free from superstition and imagination as any other reli- 
able narratives of that age, and just as much entitled to 
belief 

There will also, in certain cases, be found contradic- 
tions. The statements of the different narratives do not 
always coincide. The disagreements are, however, neither 
very numerous nor remarkable. The discrepancies are 
exactly what we should expect to find in a series of narra- 
tives, written at different times and by different hands. 



liv PRE-COLUMBIAN DISCOVERY OF 

The men who recorded the various expeditions to New 
England in the eleventh century agree, on the whole, 
quite as well as the writers of our own day, who, with 
vastly greater advantages, undertake to narrate the events 
of the second colonization in the seventeenth century/ 

Therefore these marvelous statements and occasional 
contradictions in nowise detract from the historic value of 
the documents themselves, which, even in their very 
truthfulness to the times, give everj'^ evidence of authen- 
ticity and great worth. To this general appearance of 
truthfulness we may, however, add the force of those 
undesigned coincidences between writers widely sepa- 
rated and destitute of all means of knowing what had been 
already said. The same argument may be used with 
the Sagas which has been so powerfully employed by 
Paley and others in vindicating the historical character of 
the New Testament. In these narratives, as in those of 
Paul and John, it may be used with overwhelming effect. 
Yet we do not fear to dispense with all auxiliary aids. 
We are willing to rest the whole question of the value of these 
narratives iqwn their age; for if the Sagas date back to a 
period long prior to the voyage of Columbus, then the 
Northmen are entitled to the credit of having been the 
first Europeans to land upon these shores. But the date 



' The liability of the best historians to fall into error, is illustrated by 
Paley, who shows the serious blunders in the accounts of the Marquis of 
Argyle's death, in the reign of Charles II : " Lord Clarendon relates that 
he was condemned to be hanged, which was performed the same day ; on 
the contrary, Burnet, Woodrow, Heath, Echard concur in stating that he 
was beheaded, and that he was condemned upon Saturday and executed on 
Monday." — Eoidences of Christianity, part iii, chap. i. So Mr. Bancroft 
found it impossible to give with any accuracy the location of the French 
colony of St. Savion, established on the coast of Maine, by Saussaye, in 
1613. Bancroft tells us that it was on the north bank of the Penobscot, 
while it is perfectly well known that it was located on the island of Mount 
Desert, a long way off in the Atlantic Ocean. 



AMERICA BY THE NORTHMEN. \y 

of these narratives has now been settled beyond reasonable 
question. The doubts of the ablest critical minds, both in 
Europe and America, have been eft'ectually laid to rest, 
and the only reply now given to the Northern Antiqua- 
rian is some feeble paragraph pointed with a sneer. 

We need not, therefore, appear before the public to cry, 
Place for the Northmen. They can win their own place, as 
of old. They are as strong to-day in ideas, as anciently 
in arms. 



THE ABSENCE OF MONUMENTS AND REMAINS. 

That the Northmen left no monuments or architectural 
remains in New England is true, notwithstanding Pro- 
fessor liafn supposed that he found in the celebrated 
Dighton rock^ and the stone mill at Newport, indubitable 



' Dighton Rock known as the Writing Rock, is situated six and a half 
miles south of Taunton, Mass., on the east side of Taunton river, formed by 
Assonnet Neck. It lies in the edge of the river, and is left dry at low water. 
It is a boulder of fire graywack, twelve feet long and five feet high, and 
faces the bed of the river. Its front is now covered with chiseled inscrip- 
tions of what appear to be letters and outlines of men, animals and birds. 
As early as the year 1680, Dr. Danforth secured a drawing of the upper 
portion ; Cotton Mather made a full copy in 1712 ; and in 1788, Professor 
Winthrop, of Harvard College, took a full-sized impression on prepared 
paper. Various other copies have been made at different times, all of 
which present substantially the same features. Yet in the interpretation 
of the inscription there has been little agreement. The old rock is a 
riddle, dumb as the Sphinx. A copy of the inscription was shown to a 
Mohawk chief, who decided that it was nothing less than the representa^ 
tion of a triumph by Indians over a wild beast which took place on this 
spot. Mr. Schoolcraft also showed a copy to Chingwank, an Algonquin 
well versed in picture-writing, who gave a similar interpretation. The 
Roman characters in the central part of the composition he was finally 
induced to reject, as having no connection with the rest. And whoever 
compares this inscription with those of undeniably Indian origin found 
elsewhere, cannot fail to be impressed with the similarity. Nevertheless, 
members of the Royal Society of Anticjuarians, to whost; notice it was 



Ivi PRE-COLUMBIAN DISCOVERY OF 

evidences of the Icelandic occupation. Any serious efforts 
to identify the Dighton inscription and the Newport Mill 
with the age of the ]!^orthmen can only serve to injure a 
good cause. If Professor Rafn could have seen these 
memorials himself, he would doubtless have been among 
the first to question the truth of the theory which he set 
forth. 

In regard to the structure at !N'ewport, Professor Rafn 
says that he is inclined to believe " that it had a sacred 
destination, and that it belonged to some monastery or 
Christian place of worship of one of the chief parishes in 
Vinland. In Greenland," he says, " there are to be found 
ruins of several round buildings in the vicinity of the 
churches. One of this description, in diameter about 
twenty-six feet, is situated at the distance of three hundred 
feet to the eastward of the great church in Igalliko; 



brought by the Rhode Island Historical Society, felt strongly persuaded 
that the rock bears evidence of the Northman's visit to these shores. Mr. 
Laing, the accomplished translator of the Heimakringla, in discussing the 
theories in regard to the uiscription, says, that the only real resemblance to 
letters is found in the middle of the stone, in which antiquarians discover 
the name of Thorfinn, that is, Thorfinn Karlsefne, the leader of the expedi- 
tion which came to New England in 1007. Just over these letters is a 
character supposed to be Roman also, which may signify NA, or MA, 
the letter A being formed by the last branch of M. Now MA in Icelandic 
is used as an abbreviation of Madr, which signifies the original settler of a 
country. Close to these two letters are several numerals, construed to 
mean one Jmndred and fifty-one. And according to the account of the 
voyage, Thorfinn lost nine of the hundred and sixty men with whom it is 
presumed he started, and therefore one kundrcd and fifty -one would exactly 
express the number with him at the time he is supposed to have cut the 
inscrii)tion. This, then, wovild mean altogether, that Thorfinn Karlsefne 
established himself here with one hundred and fifty-one men. Yet, as the 
testimony of this rock is not needed, we may readily forego any advantage 
that can be derived from its study. Besides, the history of similar cases 
should serve to tcmi)cr our zeal. In the time of Saxo Grammatticus (1160), 
there was a stone at Hoby, near Runamoe, in the Swedish province of 
Bleking, whicli was supposed to be sculptured with runes. At a late day 



AMERICA BY THE NOKTllMEN. Ivii 

another of forty-four feet in diameter, at the distance of 
four hundred and forty feet to the eastward of the church 
in Karkortok ; .... a third, of thirty-two feet diameter 
amongst the ruins of sixteen buiklings at Kanitsok."^ 
He supposes that all these ancient remains of the Ice- 
landers, which are to be seen in Greenland to-day, are 
baptisteries, similar to those of Italy. 

According to this view, there must have been a con- 
siderable ecclesiastical establishment in Vinland, which is 
not clearly indicated by the Sagas, from which we learn 
no more than the simple fact that Bishop Eric sailed on a 
voyage to this place in the year 1121. But is it probable 
that the ]!^orthmen would have erected a baptistery like 



copies were furnislied the antiquarians, who came to the conclusion, as 
Laing tells us, that it was a genuine inscription, referring to the battle of 
Braaville, fought in the year 680. It afterwards turned out that the appa- 
rent inscription Avas made by the disintegration of veins of a soft material 
existing in the rock. Yet the Dighton inscription is beyond question the 
work of man. Mr. A. E. Kendal, writing in 1807, says that there was a 
ti'adition that Assonnet Neck, on which tongue of land the rock is situated, 
was once a place of banishment among the Indiana. He states, further, 
that the Indians had a tradition to the effect, that in ancient tinges some 
white men in a bird landed there and were slaughtered by the aborigines. 
They also said thunder and lightening issued from the bird, which fact 
indicates that this event, if it occurred at all, must be referred to the age 
of gunpowder. Mr. Kendal mentions the story of a ship's anchor having 
been found there at an early day. In former years the rock was frequently 
dug under by the people, in the hope of finding concealed treasures. It 
is said that a small rock once existed near by which also bore marks of 
human hands. The Portsmouth and Tiverton Rocks, described by Mr. Webb 
{Antiquitates Americaiue, pp. 355-71), are doubtless Indian inscriptions ; 
while that on the island of Monhegan, oflF the coast of Maine, may perhaps 
be classed with the rock of Hoby. Yet after all, it is possible that the cen- 
tral portion of the inscri])tion on the Dighton Rock, may be the work of the 
Northmen. That two distinct parties were concerned in making the 
inscription is clear from the testimony of the Indians, who did not pretend to 
understand the portion thought to refer to Karlsefne. For the full discus- 
sion, see Antiquitates Americana', j). 378, et seq. 
' Memoirs des Antiqaaires du Nord, 1839-9, p. 377. 
H 



Iviii PRE-COLUMBIAN DISCOVERY OF 

this, and, at the same time, left no other monument? 
It seems hardly reasonable. Besides, whoever examines 
this ancient structure must be impressed by its modern 
aspect, so especially apparent in the preservation of the 
mortar, which does not bear the marks of seven centuries. 
The displacement of a portion of the masonry might per- 
haps reveal some peculiarity that would effectually settle 
the question of its antiquity to the satisfaction of all. ^ 

In treating this subject we shall run into needless errors 
and difficulties, if we attempt the task of discovering 
monuments of the J^orthmen in New England. In Green- 
land these evidences of their occupation are abundant, 
because they were regularly established on the ground for 
generations, and formed their public and private edifices 
of the only material at hand, which was well nigh im- 
perishable. But their visits to JSTew England were com- 
paratively few, and were scattered over many years. 
Owing to the weakness of their numbers, they found 



' The Old Mill at Newport stands on an eminence in the centre of the 
town, being about twenty-four feet high, and twenty -three feet in diameter. 
It rests upon eight piers and arches. It has four small windows, and, high 
up the wall, above the arches, was a small fire place. It is first distinctly 
mentioned in the will of Governor Benedict Arnold, of Newi)ort, where it 
is called, " my stone-built wind mill." It is known that during the 
eighteenth century it served both as a mill and powder house. Edward Pel- 
ham, who married Governor Arnold's granddaughter, in 1740 also called it 
" an old stone mill." Peter Easton, who early went to live in Newport, wrote 
in 1663, that " this year we built the first windmill ; " and August 28, 1675, 
he says, " A storm blew down our windmill." What Easton relates occurred 
before Governor Arnold writes about his stone windmill, and it is not unrea- 
sonable to suppose that when the one spoken of by Easton was destroyed he 
built something more substantial. Yet we cannot say that this was actually 
the case. The old tower existing at the beginning of the settlement may 
have been adapted by him for the purposes of a mill, when the one men- 
tioned by Easton was destroyed. 

The family of the Governor is said to have come from Warwickshire, Eng- 
land, and one of his farms was called the Leamington farm, as is supposed. 



AMERICA BY THE NORTHMEN. IJX 

permanent colonies impracticable. Thorfinn Karlsefne 
deliberately gave up the attempt at the end of a three 
years experiment, saying that it would be impossible to 
maintain themselves against the more numerous bands of 
natives. Their habitations were temporary. The various 
companies that came into Vinland, instead of building 
new houses, took possession of Leif's booths, and simply 
added others like them when they aiforded insufficient 
quarters. To ask for monuments of the N"orthmen is 
therefore unreasonable, since their wooden huts and timber 
crosses must soon have disappeared. The only memorial 
we have a right to expect is some trifling relic, a coin or 
amulet, perhaps, that chance may yet throw in the anti- 
quarian's way.^ In the meanwhile among scholars the 



from the place by that name near Warwick. In addition to this, in the 
Chesterton Parish, three miles from Leamington, there is an old windmill 
similar in construction to that at Newport. It is supposed that it was 
erected on pillars for pneumatic reasons, and also that carts might thus 
go underneath and be loaded and unloaded with greater ease. And 
it has been suggested, that if Gov. Arnold came from Warwickshire, of 
which the proof is not given, and if the Chesterton Mill was standing 
at the time of his departure for New England, he might have built a mill 
at Newport after the same model. Yet this is something we know little 
about. And whence came the Chesterton Mill itself? There was a tradi- 
tion that it was built after a design by Inigo Jones, but this is only a 
tradition. That structure also might have belonged to the class of Round 
Towers in Ireland, of which one at least was built by Northmen. All is 
therefore, in a measure, doubtful. It will hardly help the Northmen to 
class this Newport relic \vith their works. See Palfrey's New England, 
vol. I, pp. 57-9. 

^Many have supposed that the skeleton in armor, dug up near Fall 
River, was a relic of the Northmen, and one of those men killed by the 
natives in the Ijattle with Karlsefne. But it would be far more reason- 
able to look for traces of the Northmen among the Indians of Gaspe, 
who, at an early day, were distinguished for an unusual degree of civili- 
zation. Malte Brun tells us that they worshiped the sun, knew the 
points of the compass, observed the position of Solne of the stars, and 
traced maps of their (Country. Before the French itlissionaries went among 



Ix PRE-COLUMBIAN DISCOVERV IN AMERICA. 

Icelandic narratives are steadily winning their way to 
unquestioned belief. This is all the more gratifying in 
an age like the present, in which large portions of history 
are being dismissed to the realms of hoary fable^ and all 
the annals of the past are being studied in a critical spirit, 
with true aims and a pure zeal. 



them they worshiped the figure of tlie Cross, and had a tradition that 
a venerable person once visited them, and during an epidemic cured 
many by the use of that symbol. See Malte Brun's Oeography (English 
edition), vol. v, p. 135. Malte Brun's authority is Father Leclerc's 
Nouvelle Relation de la Oaspesie, Paris, 1672. 



THE MAJOR NARRATIVES. 



PRE-COLUMBIAN DISCOVERY. 



I. FRAGMENTS FROM LANDFAMA-BOK. 

The following extracts from the Laiichiama,^ give us the 
earliest information on record, in regard to the westward 
movements of the Icelanders. The men referred to were 
well known, and the mention of their names and exploits 
in this great work, than which no higher authority could 
he produced, is gratifying. These extracts, which are 
given in the order in which they stand in vol. i. of Gron- 
land's Historiske Mindesmcerker, the greater portion of which 
work is the labor of Finn Magnusen, have probably never 
appeared before in an English dress. The first extract 
simply mentions Gunnbiorn and his Rocks; the second 
shows that Eric the Red obtained his knowledge of the 
existence of Greenland through this person ; the third 
again gives the name of Gunnbiorn : while the fourth 
furnishes a brief account of an early voyage to the Rocks. 
It appears from these references, that, previous to the sail- 



' The Lfindnnma-hok. This is probablj' the most coinpk'te record of the 
kind ever made by any nation. It is of the same general character as the 
English Doonisihty Book, but vastly superior in interest and value. It 
contains the names of three thousand persons and one thousand four hun- 
dred places. It gives a correct account of genealogies of the first settlers, 
with brief notices of their achievements. It was commenced by the cele- 
brated Frode, the Wise, who was born 10(57, and died 1148, and was continued 
by Kalstegg, Styrmer and Thordsen, and completed by Hauk Erlt'iidson, 
Lagman, or Governor of Iceland, who died in the year 1334. 



12 PRE-COLUMBIAN DISCOVERY OF 

ing of Eric the Red, the existence of land at the west was 
well understood, the report of Gunnbiorn's adventure hav- 
ing been quite generally circulated amongst the people. 



1. There was a man named Grimkel, [A. D. 876.] son of 
Ulf Hreidarson, called Krage, and brother to Gunnbioru,^ 
after whom Gunnbiorn's Rocks ^ are named. He took pos- 
session of that piece of land that extends from Berevigs 
Roin to ISTess Roin, and out round the point of the cape. 
And he lived on Saxahval. He drove away Saxe, a son of 
Alfarin Valeson, and he lived on the Roin of Saxahval. 
Alfarin Yaleson had first taken possession of the cape 
between Berevigs Roin and Enne. 

2. Eric Red [A. D. 983.] said that he intended to find 
the land that was seen by Gunnbiorn,^ Ulf Krage's son, 
when he was driven by a storm west from Iceland, and 



^ Guunbiorn appears to have been a Nortliman who settled in Iceland at 
an early day. Nothing more is known of him. 

^ Torfseus says that these rocks lie six sea miles out from Geirfuglesker, 
out from Reikiavek, and twelve miles south of Garde in Greenland, yet 
they cannot now be found. It is not too much to suppose that they have 
been sunk by some of those fearful convulsions which have taken place in 
Iceland ; yet it is quite as reasonable to conclude that these rocks were 
located elsewhere, probably nearer the east coast, which was formerly 
more accessible than now. In the version of the Accoimt of Greenland, by 
Ivar Bardason (see Antiquitates Americanm, p. 301), given from a Faroese 
Mamiiicript, and curiously ])reserved by Purchas, His Pilgrimage, vol. iii, p. 
518, we read as follows : 

" Item, men shall know, that, between Idand and Greodand, lyeth a 
Risse called Gor?ibornse-8kare. There were they wont to haue their i)as- 
sage for Oronland. But as they report there is Ice upon the same Risse, 
come out of the Long North Bottome, so that we cannot use the same old 
Passage as they thinke." 

^Torfa^us says {Oreenlandia, p. 73), that "Eric the Rod first lived in 
Greenland, but it was discovered by the man called Gunnl)i()rn. After him 
Gunnbiorn's Rocks are called." 



AMERICA BY THE NORTHMEN. 13 

found Giinnbiorn's Rocks. [A. ~D. 876.] At the same time 
he said if he did not find the land he would return to his 
friends. 

3. Two sons of Gunnbiorn, Ulf Krage's son, after whom 
Guuubiorn's Rocks were named, were called Gunstein 
and Haldor. They took possession of Skotufiorden, Loi- 
gardelen and Ogursvigen to Mjorfiord. Berse was Hal- 
dor's son, father to Thormod Kalbrunarskald. 

SuEebiorn (Holmstein's son), called Galte, owned a ship 
[A. D. 970.] that lay in the mouth of Grimsar (in Bor- 
gafiorden). Rolf, from Rodesand, bought a half of the 
ship. Each of the parties mustered twelve men. With 
Snsebiorn, was Thorkel and Sumarlide, sons of Thorgier 
Red, son of Einar, from Staf holdt. 

Snajbiorn also took Thorod from Thingness, his step- 
father and his five sons, and Rolf took St?erbiorn. The 
last named recited the following verse, after he had a 
dream : 

Both ours 

dead I see ; 

all empty 

in Northwestern Sea; 

cold weather, 

great suffering, 

I expect 

Snaebiorn's death. i^ 

They sought Gunnbiorn's Rocks and found laud. Suai- 
biorn would not permit any one to go ashore in the night. 
Stserbiorn landed, notwithstanding, and found a purse ^ 



* The translation is literal or nearly so, and the sense is obscure. 

*This shows that others had been there before. They were doubtless 
Icelanders who were sailing to Greenland. The place of concealment 
appears to have been an excavation covered with stone or wood. That the 
people were sometimes accustomed to hide money in this way, is evident. 



14 PRE-COLUMBIAN DISCOVERY OF 

with money in an earth hole, and concealed it. Snsebiorn 
hit him with an axe 8o that the purse fell down. 

They built a cabin to live in, and it was all covered with 
snow. Thorkel Red's son, found that there was water on 
a shelf that stood out of the cabin window. This was in 
the month of Goe.^ , They shovelled the snow away. 
Snsebiorn rigged the ship ; Thorod and five of his party 
were in the hut, and Stterbiorn and several men of Rolf's 
party. Some hunted.^ Stserbiorn killed Thorod, but both 
he and Rolf killed Sna^biorn. Red's sous and all the rest 



We read in the Saj^a of Eric the Red, tliat this pcTson at first intended to 
go with his son, Leif, on his voyage to discover the land seen by Herinlf, 
and whicli Leif named Vinland. On his way to the ship, Eric's horse 
stnmbled, and he fell to the ground seriously injured, and was obliged to 
abandon the voyage. He accepted this as a judgment for having, as one 
preparation for his absence, buried his money, where his wife, Thorhild, 
would not be able to lind it. 

'This is believed to have been about February, which affords one of many 
indications that the climate of that region has become more rigorous than 
formerly. The fact that water did not freeze, indicates mild weather, which 
we might infer from the rigging of their vessels, and the prei)aration for 
sea. In regard to the tenn Goe, Gronland's Hidoriske Miiidcsnufrker 
(vol. I, p. 7), says: "This name was before used in Denmark, which Etats- 
raad Werlauf has discovered on the inscription of a Danish Rune-Stone." 
^The facts that they engaged in hunting, and that they built a cabin to 
live in, might at first lead some to suppose that the place contained a forest 
or more or less trees, to supply wood. Yet this does not follow, as drift 
wood might supph* all their wants for building jjurjioses, where they could 
not obtain or use stone. Regarding drift wood, Crantz says, in speaking of 
Greenland : " For as He has denied this frigid, rocky region the growth of 
trees, He has bid the storms of the ocean to convey to its shores a great 
deal of wood, which accordingly comes floating thither, part without ice, 
but the most part along with it, and lodges itself between the islands. 
Were it not for this, we Europeans should have no wood to burn there. . . . 
Among this wood are great trees torn up by the roots, which by driving 
vip and down for many years, and dashing and rubbing on the ice, are quite 
))are of branches. A small part of this drift wood are willows, alder and 
birch trees, which come out of the luiys in the south ; also large trunks of 
aspen trees, . . . but the gri-atest part is i)ine and fir. We find also, a good 
deal of a sort of wood, finely veined, and with few branches ; this, I fancy, is 



AMERICA BY THE NORTHMEN. 15 

were obliged to take the oath of allegiance to save their 
lives. They arrived on their return at Helgeland, Norway, 
and later at Vadil in Iceland.^ 



II. THE COLONIZATION OF GREENLAND. 

The first document relating to the settlement of Green- 
land by the Northmen, is taken from the Saga of Eric the 
Red, as given in Professor Rafn's Antiqidtates Americance, 
Besides the history of Eric arid his sous, that Saga contains 
notices of other voyages. The following are simply 
extracts. The whole Saga does not necessarily apply to 
the subject under examination — the Discovery of America. 
The second extract, which gives more of the particulars, 
is from Gronland' s Historiske Mindesmcerker, vol. ii, p. 201. 
The third is also taken from the same great historical 
depository. 

FIRST NARRATIVE. 

There was a man named Thorvald, son of Osvald, son 
of Ult-Oexna-Thorerisson. Thorvald and his son were 
obliged to leave Jardar^ and go to Iceland, on account of 
manslaughter. At that time Iceland was generally colo- 



larchwood There is also a solid, reddish wood of a more agreeable 

fragrancy than the common fir, with visible cross veins, which I take to be 
the same species a.s the beautitul silver firs, or zirbel, that have the smell 
of cedar, and grow on the high Grison hills, and the Switzers wainscot 
ther ro(mis with them." — History of Greenland, vol. i, p. 37. 

■ If any confirmation were needed of the; trutli of this narrative, or of the 
killing of Snaebiorn and Thorod, we might look for it in the etinaliy well 
known fact, that after tlu' return of tlu- voyagers to Iceland, the death of 
these two men was fearfully revenged by their fiicnds. 

'" In the southwest of Norway. 



16 PRE-COLUMBIAN DISCOVERY OF 

nized.^ They first lived in Drangey, where Thorvald died. 
Then Eric married Thorhild, daughter of Jorund and 
Thorbiarg Knarrabringa, whom afterwards Thorbiorn of 
Haiikdale married. Erie moved from the north, and fixed 
his abode in Ericstad opposite Vatshorn. The son of Eric 
and Thorhold was named Leif. But after Eyulf Soers and 
Holm-Gang Rafn's murder^ Eric was banished from Hauk- 
dale. Eric went westward to Breidafiord and lived at 
Oexney in Ericstad. He lent Thorgest his seat-posts,^ and 
he could not get them again. He then demanded them. 
Then came disputes and hostility between him and Thor- 
gest, which is told in the history of Eric. Styr Thorgrim's 
son, Eyulf of Svinoe, the sons of Brand of Aptelfiord and 
Thorbiorn Vifilsson plead the cause of Eric; Thorder 
Gellurson and Thorgeir of Hitardale plead for Thorgest. 
Eric was declared outlawed by the Thing, and prepared his 
ship for sea in Eric's Bay. Styr and the others went with 
him beyond the island. [A.D. 982.] Then Eric declared 
it to be his resolution to seek the land which Gunnbiorn, 
Ulf Ivrage's son, saw [A. D. 876.] when driven into the 
Western ocean, where he found Gunnbiorn's Rocks, say- 
ing, that if he did not find the land he would return to his 
friends. Eric set sail from Snsefellsjokul, and found land 
which from its height he called Midjokul, now called Blaa- 
serk. Thence he sailed along the shore in a southerly 
direction, seeking for the nearest habitable land. The first 
winter he passed in Ericseya,^ near the middle of the east dis- 
trict. The following year he came into Ericsfiord, where he 



' See Colonization of Iceland, in the Introduction. 

'^ See notes to Introduction. 

^ It is now impossible to indentify these localities. The old view, that 
what is called the East-byj;-d, or District, was on the eastern coast of 
Greenland, is now abandoned. It is probable that no settlement was ever 
effected on the east coast, though once it was evidently more approachable 
than now. See Graah's Mtpcdition. 



AMERICx\ BY THE NORTHMEN. 17 

fixed his seat. The same summer he explored the western 
desert, and gave names to many places. The follow- 
ing winter he passed on a holm opposite Rafnsgnipa, 
and the third year he came into Iceland and brought 
his ship into Breidafiord. The land which he found, he 
named Greenland, saying that men would be persuaded to 
go to a land with so good a name. Eric stayed in Iceland 
that winter, and the summer after he went over to the 
land which he had found, and fixed his abode in Brattah- 
lid in Ericsfiord. [A. D. 986.] Men acquainted with affairs, 
say, that this same summer in which Eric went to settle in 
Greenland, thirty-five ships sailed from Breidafiord and 
Bogafjord, of which only fourteen arrived, and the rest 
were driven back or lost. This event took place fifteen win- ' 
ters^ before the Christian religion was established in Iceland. 
The same summer. Bishop Frederick and Thorvold Kod- 
ranson went from Iceland.^ Among those who emigrated 
with Eric and established themselves, were Heriulf lleri- 
ulfsfiord who took Heriulfsness, and abode in Heriulfs- 
ness, Ketil Ketilsfiord, Rafn Rafnsfiord, Solvi Solvidale, 
Helgi Thorbrandson Alptafiord, Thorbjornglora Siglefjord, 
Einar Einarsfiord, Hafgrira Ilafgrimsfiord and Vatnahver, 
Arnlaug Arnlaugsfiord ; and other men went to the west 
district. 

The Baptism of Leif the Fortunate. 

And when the sixth'' winter had passed [A. D. 999.] 
since Eric Ked went to live in Greenland, Leif, son of Eric, 
went over from Greenland to J^orway, and in the autumn 



' As we certainly know that Cliristianity was established in Iceland in 
the year A. D. 1000, the final settlement of Eric and his followers must have 
taken place during the year assigned, viz : 98/5. 

'■'See Antiquitdtcs Americana', p. 15, note a.. 

^ Evidently an error. See Antiquitate^ Americana', p. 15, note 3. 



18 PRE-COLUMBIAN DISCOVERY OF 

arrived in Throudheim and came north to King Olaf Try- 
gvesson,^ from Hegeland. He brought his ship to Xidaros 
and went at once to King Olaf. The king commanded Leif 
and some other pagan men to come to him. They were 
exhorted to accept religion, which the king having easily 
arranged with Leif, he and all his sailors were baptized, 
and passed the winter with the king, being liberally enter- 
tained. 

SECOND NARRATIVE. 

Thorvold the son of Usvold, son of Ulf, son of Oexne- 
Thorer, and his son, Eric Red, left Jardar in Xorway on 
account of manslaughter, and took possession of a piece of 
land on Hornastrand [Iceland], and lived there at Dran- 
gey. There Thorvold died. Eric then married Thorhild, 
daughter of Jorund Atleson and Thorbiarg Knarrabriuga, 
who was then married to Thorbiorn of Haukdale. Then 
Eric went from the north and ploughed the fields in Hauk- 
dale. Then he lived in Ericstadt by Yatshorn. There his 
thralls- let a piece of rock tumble down over Valthiof's 



' TMs king propagated Christianitv by physical force, and marked the 
course of his missionary tours with fire and blood ; which might have been 
expected from a barbarian just converted from the worship of Odin and 
Thor. 

^ These thralls were slaves, though slavery in Iceland assumed peculiar 
features. The following from the Saga of Gidi tfte Outlair, shows the 
relation that slaves held to freemen. We read, that on one occasion, Gisli 
had borrowed a famous sword of Koll, and the latter asked to have it 
back, but Gisli in reply asks if he will sell it, receiving a negative reply. 
Then he says : " I will give thee thy freedom and goods, so that thou 
mayest fare whither thou wilt with other men." This is also declined, 
when Gisli continues ; " Then I Avill give thee thy freedom, and lease, or 
give thee land, and besides I ^vill give thee sheep, and cattle and go<^xls, as 
much as thou needest." This he also declines, and Kol, when (jisli tfeks 
him to name a price, offering any sum of money, Ix-sides his freedom, and 
" a becoming match, if thou ha.st a liking for any one." But Kol refused to 



AMERICA BY THE NORTHMEN. 19 

house in Valthiofstadt. But his relation, Eyulf Soirs, killed 
the thralls at Kueide-Brinke above Vatshorn. For this 
cause, Eric killed Eyulf Soirs. He also killed Holm-Gang 
Rafn at Leikskaale. Geirstein and Odd at Jorund Eyulf 
Soirs relations brought a suit against the slayer. Eric was 
then banished from Hauksdale, and took possession of the 
islands, Broko and Oexno, but lived in Todum at Sydero, 
the first winter. Then he loaned Thorgest his seat-posts. 
Then Eric moved to Oexno and lived in Ericstadt. Then 
he demanded his seat-posts, but did not get them. Eric 
took them thereafter from Bredobolstad, but Thorgest 
followed him. They fought near the house at Drangey. 
Two sons of Thorgest fell, and some other men. There- 
after they both kept their followers with them. Styr, 
Eyulf of Svino, Thorbrand's sons of Alptefiord, and Thor- 
biorn Vifilsson, were of Eric's party. But Thord Gelleirson, 
Thorgeir from Hitardale, Aslak of Langedale, and lUuge's 
son helped Thorgest. Eric and his party were sentenced 
to be banished at Thorsness Thing. He fitted out a ship 
in Ericsfiord, but Eyulf concealed him in Dimonsvaag, 
while Thorgest and his men sought after him on the 
highlands. Thorbiorn, Eyulf and Styr followed with Eric 
out to sea beyond the islands. He said that he meant to 
seek the land Gunnbiorn, Ulf Krage's son, saw [A. D. 876.] 
when he was driven by a storm west from Iceland, and 
found Gunnbiorn's Rocks; though he said at the same time 
if he discovered the land he would return to his friends. 
[A. D. 982.] Eric laid his course to the west from Snre- 
fieldness, and approached [Greenland] from the sea to 



sell it at any price, which refusal led to a fight, and in the first onset, the 
slave's axe sank into (iisli's brain, while the disputed sword, Oraystcel, clove 
tlie thick skull of Kol. See the 8aga of Oisli the Outlaw, ]), 6, Edinburgh, 
186(5. Also the Saga of Eric Red, where Thorbiorn tliinks it an indignity 
thatEinar should ask forthi^ liand of liis daughter in marriage, Fvinar being 
t]i(i son of a slave. 



20 PRE-COLUMBIAN DISCOVERY OF 

land at Midjokul, in that place that is called Bliesark. 
From thence he went along the coast to the south, to see if 
the land was fit to live in. The first year he stayed all 
winter in Erickso, nearly in the middle of the west bygd. 
In the next spring [A. I). 983.] he went to Ericsfiord, and 
there found a dwelling. N^ext summer he went to the 
western bygd, and gave certain names to many places. 
The second winter he lived in Ericsholm, at Hvarfo Fied- 
spidffi, and at the third summer [A. D. 984.] he went north 
to Sntefield, inside of Rafnsfiord. He thought then that 
the place where Ericsfiord bent was opposite the place 
where he came. He then returned and spent the third 
winter in Erickso opposite the mouth of Ericsfiord. The 
next summer [A. D. 985.] he went to Iceland, and landed 
at Breidafiord. The next winter he stayed at Holmstater, 
with Ingolf. Next spring he fought with Thorgest and 
lost the battle. That summer, Eric began to settle the 
land which he had discovered [A. I). 986.] and which he 
called Greenland, because he said that the people would 
not like to move there, if the land did not have a good 
name. Learned men say that twenty-five ships went that 
summer to Greenland from Breidafiord and Borgafjord, 
but only fourteen arrived. Of the rest, some were driven 
back and others were wrecked. This happened fifteen 
winters before Christianity was introduced into Iceland. 

THIRD NARRATIVE. 

The land some call Greenland, was discovered and 
settled from Iceland. Eric the Red was the name of the 
Breidafiord man, who [A. D. 986.] went from here [Iceland] 
to there, and took possession of that part of the land, which 
later was called Ericsfiord. He named the land and called 
it Greenland, and said it would encourage people to come 
there, if the land had a good name. They found there, 



AMERICA BY THE NORTHMEN. 21 

both east and west, ruins of houses and pieces of boats, 
and begun stonework. From which it is to be seen what 
kind of people have lived inVinland, and which the Green- 
landers call Skrselings and who had been there. He [Eric] 
began to settl'e the land fourteen or fifteen years before the 
introduction of Christianity in Iceland, Afterwards this 
was told of Greenland to Thorkel Gelleirson, by a man 
who had himself followed Eric Red. 



III. THE VOYAGE OF BIARNE. 

The voyage of Biarne to Greenland was attended by 
many hardships. His vessel was blown away from the 
course during a storm, at which time he saw the shores of 
the American continent, yet he made no attempt to land. 
Of this voyage we have two versions. The first is a 
translation of a passage from Codex Flaioiensis, given in 
Antiquitates Americance, p. 17. The second is taken from 
Gronland's Historiske Mindesmcerker. The date of this 
voyage is fixed by the fact that Biarne sailed the same 
season that his father settled in Greenland, which, as 
we learn from the narrative of Eric, was in the year 
985. There is a complete agreement between this account 
and the preceding. • 

FIRST NARRATIVE. 

Heriulf was the son of Bard, Heriulf 's son, who was a 
relation of lugolf theLandnamsman.* Ingolf gave Heriulf 
land between A^og and Reikianess. Heriulf dwelt first at 
Dropstock. His wife was called Thorgird, and their sou 



' Original settler or freeholder, wliose iiaiue and possessions were recorded 
in the Landnama-hok. 



22 PRE-COLUMBIAN DISCOVERY OF 

was called Biarne. He was a promising young man. In 
his earliest youth he had a desire to go abroad, and he 
soon gathered property and reputation ; and was by turns 
a year abroad, and a year with his father. Biarne was 
soon in possession of a merchant ship of His own. The 
last winter [A. D. 985.] while he was in N'orway, Heriulf 
prepared to go to Greenland with Eric, and gave up his 
dwelling. There was a Christian man belonging to the 
Hebudes along with Heriulf, who composed the lay called 
the Hafgerdingar ^ Song, in which is this stave : 

May he whose hand protects so well 
The simple monk in lonely cell, 
And o'er the world upholds the sky, 
His own blue hall, still stand me by.- 

Heriulf settled at Heriulfness [A. D. 985.] and became a 
very distinguished man. Eric Red took up his abode at 
Bratthalid, and was in great consideration, and honored by 
all. These were Eric's children : Leif, Thorvold, and Thor- 
stein ; and his daughter was called Ferydis. She was married 
to a man called Thorvald ; and they dwelt at Gardar, which 



' This poem uo longer exists. Its subject, the Hafgerdingar, is described 
as a fearful body of water, " which sometimes rises in the sea near Green- 
laud in such a way that three large rows of waves inclose a x>art of the sea, 
so that the ship that finds itself inside, is in the greatest danger." — OriJn- 
land's Historiske Mindismm-ker, vol. i, p. 264. There does not appear to 
be any better foundation for this motion of the Hafgerdingar than of the old 
accounts of the Maelstrom, once supposed to exist on the coast of Norway. 
The Hafgardiugar may have originated from seeing the powerful effect of a 
cross sea acting on the tide. 

- To this translation may be added another in metre, by Beamish : 

O thou who triest holy men ! 

Now guide me on my way ; 
Lord of the earth's wide vault, extend 

Thy gracious hand to me. 

This appears to be the earliest Christian prayer thus far found in connec- 
tion with this pm-iod of American history. 



AMERICA BY THE NORTHMEN. 23 

is now a bishop's seat. She was a haughty, proud woman ; 
and he was but a mean man. She was much given to 
gathering wealth. The people of Greenland were heathen 
at this time. Biarne came over the same summer [A. D. 
985.] with his ship to the strand ^ which his father had 
sailed abroad from in the spring. He was much struck with 
the news, and would not unload his vessel. When his 
crew asked him what he intended to do, he replied that 
he was resolved to follow his old custom by taking up his 
winter abode with his father. " So I will steer for Green- 
land if ye will go with me." They one and all agreed to 
go with him. Biarne said, " Our voyage will be thought 
foolish, as none of us have been on the Greenland sea 
before." Nevertheless they set out to sea as soon as they 
were ready, and sailed for three days, until they lost sight 
of the land they left. But when the wind failed, a north 
wind with fog set in, and they knew not where they were 
sailing to ; and this lasted many days. At last they saw the 
sun, and could distinguish the quarters of the sky ; so they 
hoisted sail again, and sailed a whole day and night, when 
they made land. The}^ spoke among themselves what 
this land could be, and Biarne said that, in his opinion, it 
could not be Greenland. On the question, if he should 
sail nearer to it, he said, " It is my advice that we sail up 
close to the land," They did so; and they soon saw that 
the land was without mountains, was covered with woods, 
and that there were small hills inland. They left the land 
on the larboard side, and had their sheet on the land side. 



' ^ymr. This is not the name of a place — for Heriulf dAvolt in Iceland 
at a place called Dropstock — but of a natural feature of ground ; eyri, still 
called an ayre in the Orkney islands, being a fiat, sandy tongue of land, 
suitable for landing and drawing up boats upon. All ancient dwellings in 
those islands, and probably in Iceland also, are situated so as to have the 
advantage of this kind of natural wharf, and the spit of land called an ayre, 
very often has a small lake or pond inside of it, which shelters boats. — Laiiig. 



24 PRE-COLUMBIAN DISCOVERY OF 

Then they sailed two days and nights before they got sight 
of land again. They asked Biarne if they thought this 
would be Greenland ; but he gave his opinion that the land 
was no more Greenland, than the laud they had seen 
before. "For on Greenland, it is said, there are great 
snow mountains." They soon came near to the land, and 
saw that it was flat and covered with trees. Now, as the 
wind fell, the ship's people talked of its being advisable to 
make for the land; but Biarne would not agree to it. 
They thought that they would need wood and water; but 
Biarne said: "Ye are not in want of either." And the 
men blamed him for this. He ordered them to hoist 
the sail, which was done. They now turned the ship's 
bow from the land, and kept the sea for three days and 
nights, with a fine breeze from southwest. Then they saw 
a third land, which was high and mountainous, and with 
snowy mountains. Then they asked Biarne if he would 
land here ; but he refused altogether : " For in my opinion 
this land is not what we want." ^ Now they let the sails 
stand and kept along the land and saw it was an island. 
Then they turned from the land and stood out to sea with 
the same breeze; but the gale increased, and Biarne 
ordered a reef to be taken in, and not to sail harder than 
the ship and her tackle could easily bear. After sailing 
three days and nights, they made, the fourth time, land; 



' The details of this voyage are very simple, yet whoever throws aside 
his old time prejudices, and considers the whole subject with the care which 
it deserves, cannot otherwise than feel persuaded that Biarne was driven 
tipon this Continent, and that the land seen was the coast of that great 
territory which stretches between Massachusetts and Newfoundland, for 
there is no other land to answer the description. Of course, no particular 
merit can be claimed for this discovery. It was also accidental, something 
like the discovery of America by Columbus, who, in looking for the East 
Indies, stumbled upon a new world. Yet Blame's discovery soon led to 
substantial results. 



AMERICA BY THE NORTHMEN. 25 

and when they asked Biarne if he thought this was G reon- 
hmd or not, Biarne replies: " This is most like what has 
been told me of Greenland ; and here we shall take to the 
laud." They did so, and came to the land in the evening, 
under a ness, where they found a boat. On this ness 
dwelt Biarne's father, Ilerinlf; and from that it is called 
Heriulfness. Biarne went to his father's, gave up sea- 
faring, and after his father's death, continued to dwell 
there when at home. 



SECOND NARRATIVE. 

A man named Ileriulf, son of Bard, son of Ileriulf, a 
relation to Landnamsman Ingolf, who gave the last named 
Heriulf the piece of land that lies between Vaag and Rei- 
kianess. The younger Ileriulf went to Greenland, when 
Eric Red began to settle there, and on his ship was a 
Christian man from the South Islands [the Hebrides] who 
was the author of the poem, Havgerdingar, in which was the 
following verse ; 

I to the monk's protector pray 
That he will give my voyage luck ! 
The heaven's great Ruler 
Save me from danger. 

Heriulf took possession of Heriulfsfiord, and became one 
of the chief men. Eric Red took to himself Ericsfiord, 
and lived in Brattahlid, and Leif, his son, after his death. 
Those men who at the same time went away with Eric 
took possession of the following pieces of land : Ileriulf 
Heriulfsfiord, and he lived in Heriulfness, Ketil Ketilsfiord, 
Rafn Rafnsfiord, Solve Solvedale, Snorro Thorbrandson 
Alptefiord, Thorbiornglora Siglefiord, Einar Einarsfi.ord, 
Ilavgrim Havgrimsfiord and Vatnahverf, Arnlaug Arn- 
laugfiord; but some went to the westbygd. A man named 
4 



26 PRE-COLUMBIAN DISCOVERY OF 

Thorkel Forsark, cousin to Eric Red on their mother's 
side, went to Greenland with Eric, and took possession of 
Hvalsotiord, together with the greater part of the piece of 
land between Eyolfsfiord and Einarsiiord, and hved in 
Hvalosofne. From him came the Hvalsotiord people. 
He was very strong. Once Eric Red visited him, and he 
would welcome his guest in the best way possible, but he 
had no boats at hand which he could use. He was com- 
pelled to swim out to Hvalso, and get a full-grown sheep,^ 
and carry it on his back home to his house. It was a 
good half mile. Thorkel was buried in a cave in the field 
of Hvalsofiord. 



IV. LEIF'S VOYAGE TO VINLAND. 

This voyage is recorded in the Flaio Manuscript., and is 
given in Aniiqaitates Americance, pp. 26-40. It contains the 
account of the voyage of Leif, son of Eric the Red, who, 
foUowino; out the hints of Biarne, sailed to discover the 



'Considerable lias been said at various times in opposition to these 
accounts, because cattle and sheep, and sometimes horses, are mentioned in 
connection with Greenland. Some have supposed that, for these reasons, 
the Saga must be incorrect. Yet, in more modern times, there has been 
nothing to prevent the people from keeping such animals, though it has 
been found better to substitute dogs for horses. Crantz says, that in " the 
■year 1759, one of our missionaries brought three sheep with him from 
Denmark to New Herrnhuth. These have so increased by bringing some 
two, some three lambs a year, that they have been able to kill some every 
year since, to send some to Lichtenfels, for a beginning there, and, after all, 
to winter ten at present. We may judge how vastly sweet and nutritive 
the grass is here, from the following tokens : that tho' three lambs come 
from one ewe, they are larger, even in autumn, than a sheep of a year old 
in Germany." He says that in the summer they could pasture two hun- 
dred sheep around New Herrnhuth ; and that they formerly kept cows, 
but that it proved too much trouble. — History of Greevland, vol. i, ]>. 74. 



AMERICA BY THE NORTHMEN. 27 

new land, which he callocl Vinhmd, on account of the 
quantity of vines that he found growing wild. Several 
extracts are appended, because of interest in connection 
with the subject. 



[A. D. 984.] It is next to be told that Biarne Heriulfson 
came over from Greenland to Norway, on a visit to Earl 
Eric, who received him well. Biarne tells of this expedition 
of his, in which he had discovered unknown land; and 
people thought he had not been very curious to get know- 
ledge, as he could not give any account of those countries, 
and he was somewhat blamed on this account. [A. J). 986.] 
Biarne was made a Court man of the earl, and the summer 
after he went over to Greenland ; and afterwards there 
was much talk about discovering unknown lands. Leif, a 
son of Eric Red of Brattahlid, went over ^ to Biarne Heri- 
ulfson, and bought the ship from him, and manned the 
vessel, so that in all, there were thirty-five men on board. 
Leif begged his father Eric to go as commander of the 
expedition ; but he excused himself, saying he was getting 
old, and not so able as formerly to undergo the hardship 
of a sea voyage. Leif insisted that he among all their 
relations was the most likely to have good luck on such an 
expedition ; and Eric consented, and rode from home with 
Leif, when they had got all ready for sea ; but when they 
were coming near to the ship,^ the horse on which Eric 



' He must have orone over to Greenland from Norway then, as in the year 
1000, he returned and introduced Christianity into Greenland. The lan- 
guage used is indefinite. 

*One recension of the Saga of Eric the Red, states that he went with 
Leif on his voyage to Vinland. Finn Magnusen says that the error arose 
from a change of one letter in a pair of short words. See Gronlnnd's His- 
toriske Mindesmm-ker, vol. i, p. 471. 



28 PRE-COLUMBIAN DISCOVERY OF 

Avas riding, stumbled, and he fell from liis horse ^ and hurt 
his foot. " It is destined," said Eric, " that I should never 
discover more lands than this of Greenland, on which we 
live ; and now we must not run hastily into this adven- 
ture." 2 Eric accordingly returned home to Brattahlid, but 
Leif, with his comrades, in all thirty-five men, rigged out 
their vessel. There was a man from the south country 
called Tyrker,'' with the expedition. [A.D. 1000.] They 
put the ship in order, and put to sea when they wore ready. 
They first came to the land which Biarne had last dis- 
covered, sailed up to it, cast anchor, put out a boat and 
went on shore ; but there Avas no grass to be seen. There 
were large snowy mountains^ up the country; but all the 
way from the sea up to these snowy ridges, the land was 
one field of snow, and it appeared to them a country of no 
advantages. Leif said: " It shall not be said of us, as it 
was of Biarne, that we did not come upon the land; for I 
will give the country a name, and call it llelluland.'^ 
Then they went on board again and put to sea, and found 
another land. They sailed in towards it, put out a boat, 



' Horses could be kept iu Greenland now, only with much expense. It 
appears that anciently it was not so. Undoubtc^dly there has been more 
or less of change in climate. Geologists find evidence that at one period, a 
highly tropical climate must have existed in the northern regions. 

* Superstition was the bane of the Northman's life. He was also a firm 
believer in Fate. The doctrines of Fate held the finest Northern minds in a 
vic(vlike grasp, so that in many cases their lives were continually ov(^r- 
shadowed by a great sorrow. One of the saddest illustrations of this 
belief, may l)e found iu the l^<((j(i of Grettir the Strong (given in Baring- 
Gould's work on Iceland), a Saga in which the doctrine appears with a 
power that is well nigh appalling. 

'Some suppose that he was a German, others claim that he was a Turk, 
as his name might indicate. 

* Snowy mountains, Joklar miklir, such as Chapi)ell mentions having 
b(^eu seen on the coast, June 14, 1818. 

* Helluland, from Hella,& flat stone, an al)undance of which may be found 
in Labrad(jr and the region round about. 



AMERICA BY THE NORTHMEN. 29 

and landed. The country was flat/ and overgrown with 
wood ; and the strand far around, consisted of a white 
sand, and low towards the sea. Then Leif said : " We 
shall give this land a name according to its kind, and 
called it Markland." ^ Then they hastened on board, and 
put to sea again with the Avind from the northeast, and were 
out for two days and made land. They sailed towards it, 
and came- to an island ^ which lay on the north side 



^ This agrees witli the general features of the country. The Noi'tJi Ame- 
rican Pilot describes the land around Halifax, as " low in general, and not 
visible twenty miles off; except from the quarter-deck of a seventy-four. 
Apostogon hills have a long, level appearance, between Cape Le Have and 
Port Medway, the coast to the seaward being level and low, and the shores 
with white rocks and low, barren points ; from thence to Sliellnirne and 
Port Roseway, are woods. Near Port Haldiman are several barren places, 
and thence to Cape Sable, which makes the southwest point into Barrington 
Bay, a low and woody island." — Antiquitates Americanat, p. 433. 

' Markland is supposed, with great reason, to be Nova Scotia, so well 
described, both in the Saga, and in the Coast Pilot. Markland means 
woodland. Two days sail thence, brought them in view of Cape Cod, 
though very likely the sailing time is not correct. 

'This island has given the interpreters considerable trouble, from tlie 
fact that it is said to lie to the northward of the land. And Professor Rafn, 
in order to identify this island with Nantucket, shows that the north point 
of the Icelandic compass lay towards the east. But this does not fairly 
meet the case. There would, perhaps, have been no difficulty in the 
interpretation, if the Northern Antiquarians had been acijuainted with the 
fact, that in early times an island existed northward from Nantucket, on 
the opposite coast of Ca})e C\id. This island, together with a large point of 
land which now has also disapjieared, existed in the times of (Josnold, who 
sailed ai'ound Cape Cod, in 1602. The position of this island, together with 
the point of land, is delineated in tlie map given in the Appendix. At one 
time, some doubt existed in regard to tlic truthfulness of the accounts, for 
the reason that those portions of land described, no longer existed. Yet 
their positions were laid down with scientific accuracy ; the outer portion 
of the island being called Point Care, while the other point was called Point 
Gilbert. Neither Archer nor Brereton in their accounts of Gosnold's voyage, 
give the name of the island ; but Captain John Smith, in 1614, calls it " Isle 
Nawset." Smith's History of Virgittia, vol. ii, ]>. 183. This island was of 
the drift formation, and as late as half a century ago, a portion of it still 



30 PRE-COLUMBIAN DISCOVERY OF 

of the land, where they disembarked ^ to wait for good 
weather. There was dew upon the grass ; and having 
accidentally gotten some of the dew upon their hands and 
put it in their mouths, they thought that they had never 



remained, being called Slut Busli. Tlie subject has been very carefully 
gone into by Mr. Otis, in his pamphlet on the Discovery of an Ancient Ship 
on Cape God. Professor Agassiz, writing December 17, 1863, says : " Sur- 
prising and perhaps incredible as the statements of Mr. Amos Otis may 
ajypear, they are nevertheless the direct and natural inference of tlie observ- 
ations which may be easily made along the eastern coast of Cape Cod. Having 
of late felt a special interest in the geological structure of that remarkable 
region, I have repeatedly visited it during the past summer, and, in com- 
pany with Mr. Otis, examined, on one occasion, with the most miaiute care, 
the evidence of the former existence of Isle Nauset and Point Gilbert. I 
found it as satisfactory as any geological evidence can be. Besides its 
scientific interest," he adds, " this result has some liistorical importance. At 
all events it fully \'indicates Archer's account of the aspect of Cape Cod, at 
the time of its discovery in 1602, and shows him to have been a truthful 
and accurate observer." But possibly the vindication may extend back even 
to the Northmen, whom the learned professor and his colaborers did not 
have in mind; especially as this discovery will help very materially to 
explain their descriptions. Now, in the first account of Thorfinn Karlsefne's 
passage around this part of the Vinland, it is said that they called the shore 
Wonder -strand, " because they were so long going by," Yet any one in 
sailing past the coast to-day will not be struck with its length. But by 
glancing at the reconstructed map of Cape Cod (see Appendix), the reader 
will find that the coast line is greatly increased, so that in order to pass 
around the cape, the navigator must sail a long distance ; and, comparing 
this distance travelled with the distance actually gained, the Northmen 
might well grow weary, and call it Wonder-strand. This quite relieves the 
difficulty that was felt by Professor Rafn, who labored to show that the 
island in question was Nabtucket, notwithstanding the fact that it lay too 
far east. For a fuller knowledge of Isle Nauset, see New England His- 
toric and Genealogical Register, vol. xviii, p. 37 ; and Massachusetts 
Historical Collections, vol. viii, series in, pp. 73-93. 

^In speaking of the immediate vicinity of Wonder-strand, the second 
account of Thorfinn's expedition says, " There were places without har- 
bors," which has always been the case, this coast being dangerous ; yet 
it is said above that " they landed to wait for good weather." This would 
be imitracticiil>lc nmr, except at Chatham ; yet at that day, notwithstanding 
the absence of harbors, they would find accommodation for their small 



AMERICA BY THE NORTHMEN. 31 

tasted anything so sweet as it was.^ Then they went on 
board and sailed into a sound ^ that was between the island 
and a ness ^ that went out northwards from the land, and 
sailed westward^ past the ness. There was very shallow* 
water in ebb tide, so that their ship la}^ dry; and there w^as 
a long way between their ship and the water. They were 
so desirous to get to the land that they would not wait till 
their ship floated, but ran to the land, to a place where a 
river comes out of a lake. As soon as their ship was 
afloat they took the boats, rowed to the ship, towed her 



vessel somewhere between the island and the mainland. From Bradford's 
History, p. 217, we learn that in 1626-7, there was at this place " a 
small blind harbore " that "lyes aboute ye middle of Manamoyake Bay," 
which to-day is filled up by recently formed sandy wastes and salt meadows. 
This " blind harbore," had at its mouth a treacherous bar of sand. If this 
harbor had existed in the days of the Nortlimen, they would not of 
necessity discover it ; and hence while Leif might have landed here and 
found protection, Thorfinn, in his much larger ship, might have found it 
needful to anchor, as he appears to have done, in the grounds between 
Isle Nauset and Point Gilbert, while explorations were being made oii the 
land. 

'"Honey dew," says Dr. Webb, " occvirs in this neighborhood." — Anti- 
qiiitates Americance, p. 443. 

''This sound may have been the water l)etween Point Gilberts and 
Isle Nauset. . 

' Archer says in his account of Gosnokl's voyage : " Twelve leagues from 
[the end of] Cai)e Cod, we descried a point [Point Gilbert] with some 
beach, a good distance off." It is said that the ness, or cape, went out 
northirnrd but we must remember that eastward is meant. 

^ This is precisely the course they would steer 'after doubling that ness or 
cape which existed in Gosnold's day, and which he named Point Gilbert. 
The author does not agree with Professor Rafn, in making this point to be 
at the eastern entrance to Buzzard's bay. If he had known of the existence 
of the Isle Nauset, he would not have looked for the ness in that neighbor- 
hood. At that time Cape Malabar probably did not exist, as we know how 
rapidly land is formed in that vicinity ; yet it would not have attracted 
notice in comparison with the great broad point mentioned by Archer. 

'^ After i)assing Point Gilbert, slioal water nuiy almost any where be found, 
wliicli appears to liave l)een the case anciently. 



32 PRE-COLUMBIAN DISCOVERY OF 

up the river/ and from thence into the lake,^ where they 
cast anchor, carried their beds out of the ship, and set up 
their tents. They resolved to put things in order for 
wintering there, and they erected a large house. They did 
not want for salmon,^ both in the river and in the lake ; and 
they thought the salmon larger than any the}' had ever 
seen before. The country appeared to them of so good a 
kind, that it would not be necessary to gather fodder for 
the cattle for winter.'' There was no frost in winter,^ and 
the grass was not much withered. Day and night were 
more equal than in Greenland and Iceland ; for on the 
shortest day the sun was in the sk}' between Eyktarstad ^ 



' The river was evidently Seaconnet passage and Pocasset river. 

^ This lake is Mount Hope Bay. The writer of the Saga passes over that 
part of the voyage immediately following doubling of the ness. The 
tourist in travelling that way by rail will at first take Mount Hope Bay 
for a lake. 

^Salmon were formerly so plentiful in this vicinity, that it is said a 
rule was made, providing that masters should not oblige their apprentices 
to eat this fish more than twice a week. 

'' It is well known that cattle in that vicinity can pass the winter with little 
or no shelter, and the sheep on Nantucket, can, when necessary, take care 
of themselves. 

'" This is an exaggeration, or, possibly, the writer, who was not with the 
expedition, meant to convey the idea that there was no frost, compared with 
what was experienced in Greenland and Iceland. The early narrator of the 
voyage unquestionably tried to make a good impression as regards the 
climate. In so doing, he has been follow(^d by nearly all who have come 
after him. Eric the Red told some almost fabulous stories about the 
climate of Greenland ; and yet, because his accounts do not agree with facts, 
who is so foolish as to deny that he ever saw Greenland '! And with as 
much reason we might deny that Leif came to Vinland. With equal reason, 
too, we might deny that Morton played the rioter at Merry Mount ; for he 
tells us in his J^ew Enr/lish Canaan, that coughs and colds are unknown 
in New England. Lieutanant Governor Dudley of Massachusetts com- 
l)lained of these false representations in his day. 

"This passage was misunderstood by Torfteus, the earliest writer who 
in(iuircd into these questions, and he was followed by Perlngskiold, Malte- 
Bran and others, who, by their reckoning, made the latitude of Vinland 



AMERICA BY THE jSOKTHMEN. 33 

and the Dagmalastacl. Now when they were ready with 
their house huilding, [A. D. 1001.] Leif said to his fellow 
travellers: " Now I will divide the crew into two divisions, 



somewliere near Nova Scotia. Yet the recent studies of Eafn and Finn 
Magnnssen, have elucidated the point : " The Northmen divided the 
heavens or horizons, into eight principal divisions, and the times of the 
day according to the sun's apparent motion through these divisions, the 
passage through each of which they supposed to occupy a period of three 
hours. The day was therefore divided into portions of time corresponding 
with these eight divisions, each of wliich was called an eykt, signifying an 
eighth part. This eykt was again divided, like each of the grand divisions 
of the heavens, into two smaller and equal portions, called stund or mal. 
In order to determine these divisions of time, the inhabitant of each place 
carefully observed the diurnal course of the sun, and noted the terrestrial 
objects over which it seemed to stand. Such an object, whether artificial 
or natural, was called by the Icelanders, daysmark (daymark). They were 
also led to make these daymarks by a division of the horizon according to 
the principal winds, as well as by the wants of their domestic economy 
The shepherd's rising time, for instance, was called Uirdis I'istnal, which 
corresponds with half-past four o'clock A. M., and this was the beginning 
of the natural day of twenty-four hours. Reckoning from Uirdis rismdl 
the eight stund or eighth half eykt ended at just half-past four p. M. ; and 
therefore this particular period was called xar' s|o)^>iv, eykt. This eykt, 
strictly speaking, commenced at three o'clock P. ii., and ended at half-past 
four P. M., when it was said to be in eyktarstadr or the termination of tho 
eykt. The precise moment that the sun appeared in this place indicated the 
termination of the artificial day {dnyr), and half the natural day {dagr), 
and was therefore held especially deserving of notice : the hours of labor, 
also, are supposed to have ended at this time. Six o'clock A. m. was called 
midr morgun ; half-past seven a. m., Dtujmnl ; nine A. m., Dayoerdarmal. 
Winter was considered to commence in Iceland about the seventeenth of 
October, and Bishop Thorlacius, tin; calculator of the astronomical calen- 
dar, fixes sun-rise in the south of Iceland, on the seventeenth of October, 
at half past seven A. m. At this hour, according to the Saga, it rose in 
Vinland on the shortest day, and set at half-past four p. M., which data 
fix tlic latitude of the place at 41° 43'' 10'''', being nearly tliat of Mount Hope 
Bay." See J/t'/zt. Antiq. du Nord, 183G-7, p. 165. Rath's calculation makes 
the ])i)sition 41° 34' 10'^. It is based on the view that thc^ observation was 
made in Vinland when only the uppi r |):)rtinii of tlie disc luul appeared 
abov(! the horizon. The difFcrenci', of cimrs;', is not imijortant. Thus we 
know the position of the Icelandic settieiuent in New England. See 
Antiqiiitatvs Amcriainn', p. 4;](>. 
5 



34 PRE-COLUMBIAN DISCOVERY OF 

and explore the country. Half shall stay at home and do 
the work, and the other half shall search the land ; but so 
that they do not go farther than they can come back in the 
evening, and that they do not wander from each other." 
This they continued to do for some time. Leif changed 
about, sometimes with them, and sometimes with those at 
home. Leif was a stout and strong man, and of manly 
appearance ; and was, besides, a prudent and sagacious 
man in all respects. 

It happened one evening that a man of the party was 
missing ; and it was the south country man, Tyrker. Leif 
was very sorry for this, because Tyrker had long been in 
his father's house, and he loved Tyrker in his childhood. 
Leif blamed his comrades very much, and proposed to 
go with twelve men on an expedition to find him ; but 
they had gone only a short way from the station when 
Tyrker came to meet them, and he was joyfully received. 
Leif soon perceived that his foster father ^ was quite 



' In those turbulent times cluldren were not brought up at home, but 
were sent to be trained np in the families of trusty friends. This was done 
to preserve the family line. Often, in some bloody feud, a whole household 
would be destroyed ; yet the children being out at foster, would be pre- 
served, and in due time come to represent the family. In Leif's day, 
heathenism and lawlessness were on the decline. We have a true picture 
given us by Dasent, of the way in which children were treated in the 
heathen age. 

He says : " W^itli us, an old house can stand upon a crooked, as well as 
tipon a straight support. But in Iceland, in the tenth century, as in all the 
branches of that great family, it was only healthy children that were 
allowed to live. The deformed, as a burden to themselves, their friends, 
and to society, were consigned to destruction by exposure to the violence 
of the elements. This was the father's stern right, and, though the motliers 
of that age were generally blessed with robust offspring, still the right 
was often exercised. As soon as it was born, tlie infant was laid 
upon the bare ground, and, until the father came and looked at it, lieard 
and saw that it was strong in lung and limb, took it up in his arms, and 
handed it over to the nurse ; its fate hung in the balance, and life or death 



AMERICA BY THE NORTHMEN. 35 

meny.^ Tyrker had a high forehead, sharp eyes, with a 
small face, and was little iii size, and ugly ; but was very 
dexterous in all feats. Leif said to him, " Why art thou so 
late, my foster-father ? and why didst thou leave thy com- 
rades?" He spoke at first long in German, rolled his eyes 
and knit his brows ; but they could not make out what he 
was saying. After a while, and some delay, he said in 
Norse, " I did not go much further than they ; and yet I 
have something altogether new to relate, for I found vines 
and grapes."^ " Is that true, my foster-father?" said Leif. 
"Yes, true it is," answered he, "for I was born where 



depended upon the sentence of its sire. That danger over, it was duly 
washed, signed with the Thunderer's [Thor's] holy hammer — the symbol of 
all manliness and strength — and solemnly received into the family as the 
faithful champion of the ancient gods. When it came to be named, there 
was what we should call the christening ale. There was saddling, 
mounting and riding among kith and kin. Cousins came in bands from all 
points of the compass : dependents, freedmen and thralls all mustered 
strong. The ale is broached, the board is set, and the benches are thronged 
^vith guests ; the mirth and revelry are at the highest, when in strides into 
the hall, a being of awful power, in whom that simple age set full faith. 
This was the Nome, the wandering prophetess, sybil, fortune teller, a 
woman to whom it was given to know the weirds of men, and who had 

come to do honor to the child, and tell his fortune After the child was 

named, he was often put out to foster with some neighbor, his father's infe- 
rior in power, and there he grew up with the children of the house, and 
contracted those friendships and aftecticjus wliich were reckoned better and 
UKH-e binding than the ties of blood." — Aatiqunires dit Novel, 1859, pp. 8-9. 

' There is nothing in this to indicate that Tyrker was intoxicated, as some 
have absurdly sui)posed. In this far ofl" land he found grapes, which jiower- 
fuUy reminilcd him of his native country, and the association of ideas is so 
strong, that when he first meets Leif, he brcsaks out in the language of his 
childhood, and, like ordinary epicures, expresses his joy, which is all the 
more marked on account of his grotescjue appearance. Is not this a stroke of 
genuine nature, something that a writer, framing the account of a fictitious 
voyage, would not dream of V 

^ Grapes grow wild almost everywhere on this coast. They may be 
found on Cape Cod ripeiung among the scrub oaks, even within tlu^ reach 
of the ocean spray, where the author has often gathered tlieni. 



36 PKE-COLUMBIAN DISCOVERY OF 

there was no scarcity of grapes." Now they slept all night, 
and the next morning Leif said to his men, " Now we 
shall have two occupations to attend to, and day about ; 
namely, to gather grapes or cut vines, and to fell wood in 
the forest to lade our vessel." And this advice was fol- 
lowed. It is related that their stern boat was filled with 
grapes, and then a cargo of wood was hewn for the vessel.^ 
Towards spring they made ready and sailed sway, and Leif 
gave the country a name from its products, and called it 
Vinland.^ They now sailed into the open sea and had a 
fair wind until they came in sight of Greenland and the 
lands below the ice mountains.^ Then a man put in a 
word and said to Leif, " Why do you steer so close on 
the wind ? " Leif replied : " I mind my helm and tend to 
other things too ; do you notice anything ? " They said 
that they saw nothing remarkable. " I do not know," 
said Leif, " whether I see a ship or a rock." Then they 
looked and saw that it was a rock. But he saw so much 
better than they, that he discovered men upon the rock. 
" Now I will," said Leif, " that we hold to the wind, that 
we may come up to them if they should need help ; and if 
they should not be friendly inclined, it is in our power to 
do as we please and not theirs." Now they sailed under 



'In Peringskiold's Ileimskrinfjlii, wliich Luinii; has followed iiitninslating 
Leif's voyage for his appendix, this statement of the cutting of wood is 
8UX)pleniented by the following statement : " There was also self-sown 
wheat in the fields, and a tree which is called massnr. Of all these they 
took samples ; and some of tlu; trees were so large that they were used 
in houses." It is tlujught that the massur wood was a species of nuiple. 
Others have declared that it must have been mahogany, and that therefore 
the account of Leif's discovery is false. They forget that even George 
Popham, in writing home to his patron from Sagadahoc, in 1607, says that 
among the productions of the country are " nutmegs and cinnamon." Yet 
shall we infer iroxa. this that Popham never saw New England ? 

"^ See Adam of Bremen's testimony in the Introduction. 

' It will be noticed that they were close upon the Greenland coast. 



AMERICA BY THE NORTHMEN. 37 

the rock, lowered their sails, cast anchor, and put out 
another small boat which they had with them. Then 
Tyrker asked who their leader was. He said his name 
was Thorer, and said he was a Northman ; ^ " But what is 
your name ? " said he. Leif told his name. " Are you the 
son of Eric the Red of Brattahlid ? " he asked. Leif said 
that was so. " Now I will," said Leif, " take ye and all 
on board my ship, and as much of the goods as the ship 
will store." They took up this offer, and sailed away to 
Ericfiord with the cargo, and from thence to Brattahlid, 
where they unloaded the ship, Leif offered Thorer and 
his wife, Gudrid, and three others, lodging with himself, 
and offered lodging elsewhere for the rest of the people, 
both of Thorer's crew and his own. Leif took fifteen men 
from the rock, and thereafter was called, Leif the Lucky. 
After that time Leif advanced greatly in wealth and con- 
sideration. That winter, sickness came among Thorer's 
people, and he himself, and a great part of his crew, died. 
The same winter Eric lied died. This expedition to 
Vinland was much talked of, and Leif's brother, Thorvald, 
thought that the country had not been explored enough in 
different places. Then Leif said to Thorvald, " You may 
go, brother, in my ship to Vinland if you like ; but I will 
first send the ship for the timber which Thorer left upon 
the rock." And so it was done. 



' They were evidently Norwegiun traders who were shipwrecked while 
a])proaching' tlie coast and sailiufz; for the Greenland jiorts. 



38 PRE-COLUMBIAN DISCOVERY OF 

SECOND NARRATIVE. 

The same spring, King Olaf, as said before, sent Gis- 
sur ^ and Hialte ^ to Iceland. The king also sent Leif to 
Greenland to proclaim Christianity there. The king sent 
with him, a priest, and some other religious men, to bap- 
tize the people and teach them the true faith. Leif sailed 
the same summer to Greenland; he took up out of the 
ocean, the people of a ship who were on a wreck completely 
destroyed, and in a perishing condition. And on this 
same voyage he discovered Vinlaud the Good,^ and came 
at the close of summer to Brattahlid, to his father Eric. 
After that time the peeple called him, Leif the Fortunate ; 
but his father Eric said that these two things went against 
one another; that Leif had saved the crew of the ship, and 
delivered them from death, and that he had [brought] that 
bad man into Greenland, that is what he called the priest; 
but after much urging, Eric was baptized,* as well as all 
the people of Greenland. 



* Gissur, called the White, was one of the greatest lawyers of Iceland. 
We read that "there was a man named Gissur White, he was Teit's son, 
Kettlebiarne the Old's son, of Mossfell [Iceland]. Bishop Isleif was Gissur's 
son. Gissur the White kept house at Mossfell, and was a great Chief." — 
Saga of Burnt Nial, vol. i, p. 146. 

^ Hialte was doubtless the same person who entered the swimming match 
with King Olaf. See Saga of Olaf Tryggv^esson. 

^ This is an error, unless the writer means that the voyage to Vinlaud, 
afterwards undertaken, was a part of the same general expedition. Leif 
went to Greenland first, as we have already seen. 

* These pagans did not always yield even so readily as Eric. Some in Nor- 
way became martyrs to the faith of Odin. See Saga of Olaf Tryggvesmi 
(passim), in vol. i of Heimskringlu. 



AMERICA BY THE NORTHMEN. 39 



THIRD NARRATIVE. 



The same winter, Leif, the son of Eric the Red, was in 
high favor with King Olaf, and embraced Christianity. 
But the summer that Gissur went .to Iceland, King Olaf 
sent Leif to Greenland, to proclaim Christianity. He sailed 
the same summer for Greenland. He found some men in 
the sea on a w^reck, and helped them ; the same voyage,^ 
he discovered Vinland the Good, and came at harvest time 
to Greenland. He brought with him a priest and other 
religious- men, and went to live at Brattahlid with his 
father Eric. He was afterwards called, Leif the Fortu- 
nate. But his father Eric said, that these two things were 
opposed to one another, because Leif had saved the crew 
of the ship, and brought evil men to Greenland, meaning 
the priests. 



V. THORVALD ERICSON'S EXPEDITION". 

The greater portion of this voyage appears to have been 
performed during two summers, the expedition finally 
returning to Greenland on account of the death of their 
leader. The narrative is taken from Codex Flatoiensis, as 
given in Aniiquiiates AmericaiKB. 



Now Thorvald [A. D. 1002.] made ready for his voyage 
with thirty men, after consulting his brother Leif They 
rigged their ship, and put to sea. Nothing is related of 
this expedition until they came to Vinland, to the booths 
put up by Leif, where they secured the ship and tackle, 



' See note to foregoing account. 

- These appear to liave been niarrit'd men or secular clergy. 




40 PRE-COLUMBIAN DISCOVERY OF 

and remained quietly all winter and lived by fishing. In 
spring [A. D. 1003.] Tliorvald ordered the vessel to be 
rigged, and that some men should proceed in the long- 
boat westward along the coast, and explore it during the 
summer. They thought the country beautiful and well 
wooded, the distance small between the forest and the sea, 
and the strand full of white sand. There were also many 
islands and very shallow water. They found no abode 
for man or beast, but on an island far towards the west, 
they found a corn barn constructed of wood. They found 
no other traces of human work, and came back in autumn 
to Leif's booths. The following spring, [A. D. 1004.] 
Thorvald,with his merchant ship, proceeded eastwards, and 
towards the north along the land.^ Opposite to a cape ^ 
they met bad weather, and drove upon the land and broke 
their keel, and remained there a long time to repair the 
vessel. Thorvald said to his companions : " We will stick 
up the keel here upon the ness, and call the place 
Kialarness," which they did. Then they sailed away east- 
ward along the country, to a point of land,^ which was 
erywhere covered with woods. They moored the vessel 
to the land, laid out gangways to the shore, and Thorvald 
with all his ship's company, landed. He said, " Here it is 
beautiful, and I would willingly set up my abode here." 



^ This clearly indicates a voyage around Cape Cod. 

^ This cape was evidently, not Point Gilbert, but the terminus of Cape 
Cod, known as Race Point, a dangerous place for navigation. It would 
seem that this was the })lace referred to, for the reason that the next place 
mentioned is the east shore, meaning the shore near Ph^nouth, which is 
readily seen from the end of Cape Cod in a clear day. It was undoubtedly 
the vicinity of Race Point that they called Kialarness, or Keel Cape. 

^ Here the version in Antiquitates Americana, p. 42, is followed, instead 
of Peringskiold, whose version does not mention the point of land. Tliis 
place is regarded as Point Alderton, behjw Boston Harbor. Thorvald 
evidently sailed along the shore to tliis point, wliich is the most remark- 
able on the east coast. 



AMERICA BY THE NORTHMEN. 41 

They afterwards went on board, and saw three specks upon 
the sand within the point, and went to them and found 
there were three skin boats with three men under each 
boat. They divided their men and took all of them 
prisoners, except one man, who escaped with his boat. 
They killed eight of them, and then went to the point and 
looked about them. Within this bay they saw several 
eminences, which they took to be habitations. Then a 
great drowsiness came upon them and they could not keep 
themselves awake, but all of them fell asleep. A sudden 
scream came to them, and they all awoke ; and mixed with 
the scream they thought they heard the words : "Awake, 
Thorvald, with all thy comrades, if ye will save your lives. 
Go on board your ship as fast as you can, and leave this 
land without delay." In the same moment an innumer- 
able multitude, from the interior of the bay, came in skin 
boats and laid themselves alongside. Then said Thorvald, 
" We shall put up our war screens ^ along the gunwales 
and defend ourselves as well as we can, but not use our 
weapons much against them." They did so accordingly. 
The Skrsellings^ shot at them for a while, and then fled 
away as fast as they could. Then Thorvald asked if any- 
one was w^ounded, and they said nobody was hurt. He 
said : " I have a wound under the arm.^ An arrow flew 



' These screens were made of planks wliich could be quickly arranged 
above the bulwarks, thus aflfbrding additional protection against arrows 
and stones. 

^ These people are sometimes called Smaellingar, or small men. Others 
dc^duce their name from skrcela, to dry, alluding to their shriveled aspect ; 
and others from skrcekia to shout. It is evident from the accounts of Egede 
and C'rantz, that they formerly inhabited this part of the country, but were 
gradually obliged to go northward. It is well known that in other parts of 
America, these migrations were common. And these people were more 
likely to take a refuge in Greenland than the Northmen themselves. 

^ The conduct of Thorvald indicates magnanimity of character, thinking 
first of his men, and afterwards of himself. 
C 



42 PRE-COLUMBIAN DISCOVERY OF 

between the gunwale and the shield under my arm : here 
is the arrow, and it will be my death wound. Now I 
advise you to make ready with all speed to return ; but ye 
shall carry me to the point which I thought would be so 
convenient for a dwelling. It may be that it was true 
what I said, that here would I dwell for awhile. Ye shall 
bury me there, and place a cross at my head and one at my 
feet, and call the place Crossness." Christianity had been 
established in Greenland at this time ; ^ but Eric Red was 
dead^ before Christianity was introduced. jSTow Thorvald 
died, and they did everything as he had ordered. Then 
they went away in search of their fellow voyagers ; and 
they related to each other all the news. They remained 
in their dwelling all winter, and gathered vines and grapes, 
and put them on board their ships. Towards spring, they 
prepared to return to Greenland, where they arrived with 
their vessel, and landed atEricsiiord, bringing heavy tidings 
to Leif, 



^Christianity was introduced by Leif, Thorvald's brother, in 1001-3. 

^This is evidently an error, for Christianity was introduced by Leif, before 
he sailed on his voyajj^e to Vinland. Errors like this abound in all early 
annals, and why should the Icelandic chronicles be free from them '? Every 
such case will be impartially pointed out. The treatment of this passage 
by Smith, in his Dialogues on the Northmen, p. 127, is far from being 
candid. He translates the passage thus : " But Eric the Red had died 
without professing Christianity," and refers the English reader to the Saga 
of Thorfinu Karlsefne, Antiquitates Americaiue, pp. 119-20, as if he would 
there find a reason for his rendering of the text, which is unequivocal, and 
is translated literally above. On turning to the authority in question, we 
find nothing more said than that " Eric was slow to give up his [pagan] 
religion," and that the affair caused a separation between him and his 
wife. That he was slow to give up his pagan belief, would seem to indi- 
cate tliat he did give it up eventually. Moreover, we have the direct 
statement that he was baptized. Second Narrative of Leif, p. 38. 



AMERICA BY THE NORTHMEN. 43. 



VL THORSTEIN ERICSON'S ATTEMPT TO FIND 
VINLAND. 

This version is from Codex Flatoiensis, and is given in 
Antiquitates Americance, pp. 47-55. The expedition was 
wholly unsuccessful, and the leader iinally died without 
reaching the desired land. One cannot help feeling, not- 
withstanding the marvellous events recorded, that the basis 
of this account, is formed of solid fact. The main narrative 
is not one likely to have been invented by an impostor. 



In the meantime it had happened in Greenland, that 
Thorstein of Ericsfiord had married, and taken to wife, 
[A. D. 1005.] Gudrid, the daughter of Thorbiorn, who 
had been married, as before reJated, to Thorer, the East- 
man.^ Thorstein Ericsson bethought him now, that he 
would go to Vinland, for his brother Thorvald's body. 
He rigged out the same vessel, and chose an able and 
stout crew. He had with him, twenty-five men, and his 
wife Gudrid ; and as soon as they were ready he put to 
sea, and they quickly lost sight of the land. They drove 
about on the ocean the whole summer, without knowing 
where they were; and in the :^rst week of winter,^ they 
lauded at Lysifiord in Greenland, in the western settle- 
ment. Thorstein looked for lodgings for his men, and got 
his whole ship's crew accommodated, but not himself and 
wife ; so that for some nights they had to sleep on board. 
At that time Christianity was but recent in Greenland. 
One day, early in the morning, some men came to their 
tent, and the leader asked them what people were in the 



■ Norway lay cast of Ici'laiid, and licncc the ])co])l(' of tliat rouiitry wen 
sometimes called Eastmen. 

- Winter begau October 17. Sue p. 32, uote G. 



44 PRE-COLUMBIAN DISCOVERY OF 

tent ? Thorstein replies, " Two ; M^ho is it that asks ? " 
" Thorstein," was the reply, " and I am called Thorstein 
the Black, and it is my errand here, to offer thee and 
thy wife lodging heside me." Thorstein said he would 
speak to his wife about it ; and as she gave her consent, 
he agreed to it. " Then I shall come for you to-morrow 
with my horses,^ for I do not want means to entertain you; 
hut few care to live in my house, for I and my wife live 
lonely, and I am very melancholy. I have also a different 
religion ^ from yours, although I think the one you have, 
the best." Now the following morning he came for them 
with horses ; and they took up their abode with Thorstein 
Black, who was very friendly towards them. Gudrid had 
a good outward appearance, and was knowing, and under- 
stood well how to behave with strangers. Early in the 
winter, a sickness prevailed among Thorstein Ericsson's 
people, and many of his ship men died. He ordered that 
coffins should be made for the bodies of the dead, and that 
they should be brought on board, and stowed away care- 
fully ; for he said, " I will transport all the bodies to Erics- 
fiord in Slimmer." It was not long before sickness broke 
out in Thorstein Black's house, and his wife, who was 
called Grimhild, fell sick first. She was very stout, and 
as strong as a man, but yet she could not bear up against 
the illness. Soon after, Tliorstein Ericksson also fell sick, 
and they both lay ill in bed at the same time; but Grim- 
hild, Thorstein Black's wife died first. When she was 
dead, Thorstein went out of the room for a skin to lay 
over the corpse. Then Gudrid said, " My dear Thorstein, 
be not long away ; " which he promised. Then said 
Thorstein Ericsson, " Our housewife is wonderful, for she 



' Tliey probably liad diminutive horses in Greenland, like this of Iceland 
to-day. 

^Thorstein Black was a pagan, who nevertheless saw the superior value 
of the new faith. 



AMERICA BY THE NORTHMEN. 45 

raises herself up with her elbows, moves herself forward 
over the bed-frame, and is feeling for her shoes." In the 
same moment, Thorstein the Goodman, came back, and 
instantly, Grimhild laid herself down, so that it made 
every beam that was in the house, crack. Thorstein now 
made a coffin for Grimhild's corpse, removed it outside, 
and buried it. He was a stout and strong man, but it 
required all his strength to remove the corpse from the 
house. Now Thorstein Ericsson's illness increased upon 
him, and he died, Avhich Gudrid his wife took with great 
ojrief. Thev were all in the room, and Gudrid had set 
herself upon a stool before the bench on which her hus- 
band Thorstein's body lay. Now Thorstein the goodman 
took Gudrid from the stool in his arms, and set himself 
with her upon a bench just opposite to Thorstein's body,^ 
and spoke much with her. He consoled her, and promised 
to go with her in summer to Ericsfiord, with her husband 
Thorstein's corpse, and those of his crew. " And," said 
he, " I shall take with me many servants to console and 
assist." She thanked him for this. Thorstein Ericsson 
then raised himself up and said, " Where is Gudrid ? " 
And thrice he said this; but she was silent. Then she 
said to Thorstein the Goodman, " Shall I give answer or 
not?" He told her not to answer. Then went Thorstein 
the Goodman across the room, and sat down in a chair, 
and Gudrid set herself on his knee; and Thorstein the 
Goodman said : " What wilt thou make known ? " After 
a while the corpse replies, "I wish to tell Gudrid her fate 
beforehand, that she may be the better able to bear my 
death; for I have come to a blessed resting place. And this 
I have now to tell thee, Gudrid, that thou wilt be married 



' We must here remember the simplicity of manners, which then (as now) 
prevailed among the Icelanders. The tourist in Iceland is always surjirised 
by the absence of all i)rudi'ry. 



46 PRE-COLUMBIAN DISCOVERY OF 

to an Iceland man, and ye will live long together; and 
from yon will descend many men, brave, gallant and wise, 
and a well pleasing race of posterity. Ye shall go from 
Greenland to Norway, and from thence to Iceland, where 
ye shall dwell. And long will ye live together, but thou 
wilt survive him ; and then thou shalt go abroad, and go 
southwards, and shall return to thy home in Iceland. And 
there must a church be built, and thou must remain there 
and be consecrated a nun, and there end thy days." ^ And 

^ Whoever iuclines to dismiss this whole narrative as an idle fiction, must 
remember that all history is more or less pervaded hy similar stories. The 
Rev. Cotton, Mather, in his Magnalia of New England, gives the account of 
a great number of supernatural events of no better character than this 
related in the Saga. Some are ludicrous in the extreme, and others are 
horrible, both in their inception and end. Among other stories, is that of 
Mr. Philip Smith, deacon of the church at Hadley, Mass., and a member 
of the General Court, who appears to have been bewitched. He was finally 
obliged to keep his bed. Then it is said that the people " beheld fire some- 
times on the bed ; and when the beholders began to discourse of it, it van- 
ished away. Divers people actually felt something often stir in the bed , 
at a considerable distance from the man ; it seemed as big as a cat, but 
they could never grasp it. Several trying to lean on the bed's head, tho' 
the sick man lay wholly still, the bed would shake so as to knock their 
heads uncomfortably. A very strong man could not lift the sick man, to 
make him lie more easily, tho' he apply'd his utmost strength unto it ; and 
yet he could go presently and lift the bedstead and a bed, and a man lying 
on it, without any strain to himself at all. Mr. Smith dies. . . . After the 
opinion of all had pronounced him dead, his countenance continued as 
lively as though he had been alive. . . . Divers noises were heard in the 
room where the corpse lay ; as the clattering of chairs and stools, whereof 
no account could be given." — Magnalia,, ed. 1853, vol. i, p. 455. The 
account is vouched for by the author, who was one of the most learned 
divines of his day. Another is given, among the multitude of which he 
had the most convincing proof. He writes : " It was on the second day of 
May, in the year 1087, that a most ingenious, accomplish 'd and well-dispos'd 
young gentleman, Mr. Joseph Beacon by Name, about 5 o'clock in the morn- 
ing, as he lay, whether sleeping or waking he could not say (but he judged 
the latter of them), had a view of his brother, then at London, although he 
was himself at our Boston, distanc'd from him a tliousand leagues. Tliishis 
brothel' a|)pear'd to him in the morning (I say) about 5 o'clock, at Boston, hav- 



AMERICA BY THE NORTHMEN. 47 

then Thorstein sank backwards, and his corpse was put in 
order and carried to the ship. Thorstein the Goodman 
did all that he had promised. He sold in spring [A. D. 
1006.] his land and cattle, and went with Gudrid and all 
her goods ; made ready the ship, got men for it, and then 
went to Ericsfiord. The body was buried at the church.^ 
Gudrid went to Leif s at Brattahlid, and Thorstein the 
Black took his abode in Ericsfiord, and dwelt there as 
long as he lived; and was reckoned an able man. 



ing on him a Bengale gown, wliicli lie nsually wore, with a napkin ty'd about 
his head ; his cmintenance was very pale, ghastly, deadly, and he had a bloody 
wound on the side of his forhead. ' Brother,' says the atFrighted Joseph, 
' Brother,' answered the apparition. Said Joseph, ' What's the matter 
Brother ? how came you here ? ' The apparition replied : ' Brother I have 
been most barbarously and inhumanly murdered by a debauch'd fellow, to 
whom I never did any wrong in my life.' Whereupon he gave a par- 
ticular description of the murderer ; adding, ' Brother, this fellow, changing 
his name, is attempting to come over to New England, in Foy or Wild : I 
would pray you on the arrival of either of these, to get an order from the 
goveruour to seize the person whom I now have describ'd, and then do 
you indict him for the murder of your brother.' And so he vanished." 
Mather then adds an account, which shows that Beacon's brotlier was 
actually murdered as described, dying within the very hour in which his 
apparition appeared in Boston. He says that the murderer was tried, l)ut, 
with the aid of his friends, saved his life. Joseph himself, our author 
says, died " a pious and hopeful death," and gave him the account written 
and signed with his own hand. And now, while New England history 
abounds with stories like this, men incline to question an Icelandic writer, 
because he occasionally indulges in fancies of the same soi-t. Rather should 
we look for them, as authentic contemporaiy signs. 

'Thorhild's Church. See Aiitiqiiitates AmericaiKv, ]>. 11!). 



48 PRE-COLUMBIAN DISCOVERY OF 



VII. TIIORFINN KARLSEFNE'S EXPEDITION TO 
VINLAND. 

This was in many respects the most important expedi- 
tion to New England, both as regards the numbers 
engaged, and the information and experienced derived. 
"We have three different accounts of this expedition. The 
first is from the somewhat lengthy Saga of Thorfinn 
Karlsefne, from the Arnce-Magncean Collcctmi ; the second 
is from the Saga of Eric the Red, being called "The 
Account of Thorfinn : " while the third is a briefer 
relation from Codex Flatbiensis. The two first may be 
found m Rafn's Antiquitates Americance, pp. 75-200; while 
the last is also given in the same work, on pp. 55-64. 

The Saga of Karlsefne is occupied largely at the begin- 
ning with accounts of various matters connected with 
social life ; yet, as such subjects are not essential to the 
treatment of the subject, they are all omitted, except the 
account of Thorfinn's marriage with the widow of Thor- 
stein Ericson. 

The notes to the narrative of Leif's expedition, which 
precedes this in the chronological order, supersede the 
necessity of treating a number of important points sug- 
gested again in the present narrative. 

It is believed that the principal manuscript of Thorstein 
Karlsefne is a genuine autograph by one of his descendants, 
the celebrated Hauk Erlander,the Governor or Lagman of 
Iceland, in 1295, who was also one of the compilers of the 
Lancbmma-bok. Erlander was the ninth in descent from 
Thorfinn. Torfreus, who supposed that this manuscript 
was lost, knew it only through corrupt extracts in the col- 
lection of Biorn Johnson. 

There will be found a substantial agreement between 
the different accounts, notwitlisfanding they are not the 



AMERICA BY THE NORTHMEN. 49 

work of eye witnesses. The differences are evidently such 
as would not appear in the case of three writers who had 
banded together for the purpose of carrying out a historical 
fraud. The Saga of Thorfinn was written in Iceland, while 
that of Eric was composed in Greenland. The account 
from the Flato Manuscript^ was, of course, written in the 
island which bears that name, and is extremely brief, 
wanting many essential particulars. 



NARRATIVE OF THORFINN KARLSEFNE. 

There was a man named Thord, who dwelt at Hofda, 
in Hofda-Strand. He married Fridgerda, daughter of 
Thorer the Idle, and of Fridgerda the daughter of Kiar- 
val. King of the Irish. Thord was the son of Biarne 
Byrdusmjor,^ son of Thorvald, son of Aslak, son of Biarne 
Ironsides, son of Ragnar Lodbrok, They had a son 
named Snorre, who married Thorhild the Partridge, daugh- 
ter of Thord Geller. They had a sou named Thord Horse- 
head. Thorfinn Karlsefne was his son, whose mother's 
name was Thoruna. Thorfinn occupied his time in mer- 
chant voyages, and was thought a good trader. One 
summer he fitted out his ship for a voyage to Greenland, 
attended by Snorre Thorbrandson of Alptafiord, and a crew 
of forty men. There was a man named Biarne Grimolfsou 
of Breidafiord, and another named Tliorhall Gamlasoii of 
Austfiord. The men fitted out a ship at the same time, to 
voyage to Greenland. They also had a crew of forty men. 
This ship, and that of Thorfinn, as soon as they were 
ready, put to sea. It is not said how long they were on 
the voyage ; it is only told that both ships arrived at Erics- 



' Literally, Biarne Butter-tuh, from wliicli wo may, perhaps, infer his 
personal peculiarity. 

7 



50 PKE-OOLUMBIAN DISCOVERY OF 

fiord in the autumn of that year, Leif^ and other people 
rode down to the ships, and friendly exchanges were made. 
The captains requested Leif to take whatever he desired of 
their goods. Leif in return, entertained them well, and 
invited the principal men of both ships to spend the 
winter with him at Brattahlid. The merchants accepted 
his invitation with thanks. Afterwards their o-oods were 
moved to Brattahlid, where they had every entertainment 
that they could desire ; therefore their winter quarters 
pleased them much. When the Yule feast began, Leif 
was silent and more depressed than usual. Then Karl- 
sefne said to Leif: " Are you sick friend Leif? you do not 
seem to be in your usual spirits. You have entertained 
us most liberal]}', for which we desire to render you all 
the service in our power. Tell me what it is that ails 
you." " You have received what I have been able to 
offer you," said Leif, " in the kindest manner and there is 
no idea in my mind that you have been wanting in 
courtesy ; but I am afraid lest when you go away, it may be 
said that you never saw a Yule^ feast so meanly celebrated 
as that which draws near, at which you will be entertained 
by Leif of Brattahlid." "What shall never be the case, 
friend," said Karlsefne, "we have ample stores in the ship ; 
take of these what you wish, and make a feast as splendid 
as you please." Leif accepted this ofier, and the Yule 



^ Througliout this narrative of Thorfimi, the name of Eric occurs where 
that of Leif should be given. Eric died five j-ears before Thorfinu came 
over to Greenland. This account having been written in Iceland, the 
author made a very natural mistake in supposing that Eric was still at the 
head of the family. The proper change has been made in the translation, 
to avoid confusion. 

'■^ Yule was a pagan festival, held originally in honor of Tlior, the god of 
War, at the beginning of February, which was the opening of the North- 
man's year. But as Christianity had been established in Greenland for 
five years, the festival was now i)rol)aljly changed to Deceniber, and held 
in honor of Christ. 



AMERICA BY THE NORTHMEN. 51 

began ; and so well were Leif s plans made, that all were 
surprised that such a rich feast could be prepared in so 
poor a country. After the Yule feast, Karlsefne began to 
treat with Leif, as to the marriage of Gudrid,^ Leif being 
the person to whom the right of betrothal belonged. Lief 
gave a favorable reply, and said she must fulfill that 
destiny which fate had assigned, and that he had heard 
of none except a good report of him ; and in the end it 
turned out that Karlsethe married Gudrid, and their wed- 
ding was held at Brattahlid, this same winter. 

[A. D. 1007.] The conversation often turned at Brattah- 
lid, on the discovery of Vinland the Good, and they said 
that a voyage there had great hope of gain. And after 
this Karlsefne and 8norre made ready for going on a voyage 
there, the following spring. Biarne and Thorhall Gamla- 
sou, before mentioned, joined him with a ship. There was 
a man named Thorvard, who married Freydis, natural 
daughter of Eric Red, and he decided to go with them, as 
did also Thorvald, son ^ of Eric. And Thorhall, commonly 
called the Hunter, who had been the huntsman of Eric in 
the summer, and his steward in the winter, also went. 
This Thorhall was a man of immense size and of great 
strength, and dark complexion and taciturn, and when he 
spoke, it was always jestingly. He was always inclined to 
give Leif evil advice, and was an enemy of Christianity. 
He knew much about desert lands; and was in the same 



' Widow of Tliorstein Ericson. Rafu thinks, as she is mentioned in this 
Saga by two names, Gudrid and Thurid, that one was her name in child- 
hood, and the other in her maturer years, when Christianity cam(! to have a 
practical bearing. Her father's name was Thorbiorn, derived from Thor. 
It was supposed that those who bore the names (jf gods would find in 
these names a charm or special ])rotection from danger. 

'^ This is a mistake, Eric's sou was dinid. It must have; beiui another 
Thorvald. 



52 PRE-COLUMBIAN DISCOVERY OF 

ship with Thorvord and Thorvald. These used the ship 
which broui^ht Thorbiorn from Iceland. There were in 
all, forty men and a hundred.' They sailed to the West 
district [of Greenland], and thence to Biarney ; ^ hence they 
sailed south a night and a day. Then land was seen, and 
they launched a boat and explored the land ; they found 
great flat stones, many of which were twelve ells broad. 
There were a great number of foxes there. They called 
the land Helluland.^ Then they sailed a day and a night 
in a southerly course, and came to a land covered with 
woods, in which there were many wild animals. Beyond 
this land to the southeast, lay an island on which they slew 
a bear. They called the island Bear island,^ and the land, 
Markland. Thence they sailed south two days and came 
to a cape. The land lay on the right [starboard] side of 
the ship, and there were long shores of sand. They came 
to land, and found on the cape, the keel of a ship, 
from which they called the place Kiarlarness,^ and the 



' The Northmen had two ways of reckonintj a liundred, the short and 
the long. The long hundred was a liundred and twenty. We read in 
Tegner's FritMof's Saga : 

" But a house for itself was the banquet hall, fashioued in fir wood ; 
Not five hundred, though told ten dozen to every hundred, 
Filled that chamber so vast, when they gathered for Yule-tide carousing." 

Amei'ican ed., chap, in, \i. 13. 

Professor Rafn infers that the long hundred was here meant, because he 
tliinks that the inscription on Dighton Rock indicates CLI., the number of 
men Karlsefne had with Mm, after losing nine. 

"^ The present island of Disco, also called by the Northmen, Biarney, or 
Bear island. 

^The northern coast of America was called Helluland the Great, and 
Newfoundland, Helluland, or Little Helluland. — Antiquitates Americana', 
p. 419. 

* Supposed from the distance to be the Isle of Sable. 

^Leif had left the keel of his vessel h(^r<i on the ])oint of this cape, 
which was Cape Cod. In calling it by tliis name, tht'y simply followed his 
exaini»le. 



AMERICA BY THE NORTHMEN. 53 

shores they also called Wonder-strand, because it seemed 
so long sailing by. Then the land became indented with 
coves, and they ran the ship into a bay,^ whither they 
directed their course. King Olaf Tryggvesson had given 
Leif two Scots,^ a man named Haki and a woman named 
Hekia; they were swifter of foot than wild animals. 
These were in Karlfsefne's ship. And when they had 
passed beyond Wonder-strand, they put these Scots ashore, 
and told them to run over the land to the southwest, 
three days, and discover the nature of the land, and then 
return. They had a kind of garment that they called 
kiafal, that was so made that a hat was on top, and it was 
open at the sides, and no arms; fastened between the legs 
with a button and strap, otherwise they were naked. 
When they returned, one had in his hand a bunch of 



^Tliis bay was the bay then situated between Pohit Gilbert and Isle 
Naiiset, which Professor Agassiz proves to have existed. The writers 
do not mention this island in either of the accounts of Thorfinn's voyage ; 
but it has been shown that Isle Nauset lay close to the shore, so that they 
would not know that it was an island without particular examination ; and 
if they were aware of its existence, it was not necessary to speak of it. Leif 
landed upon, it, therefore it was mentioned by the author who wrote the 
account of his voyage. Yet Thorfinn's chroniclers help to prove its exist- 
ence, by showing that beyond Wonder-strand there was a bay where they 
could safely ride at anchor for three days. 

It must be noticed that the events are not set down in their exact order, 
for after the writer gets the vessels into tlie bay, he goes back to speak of 
the landing of the Scots. Gosnold anchored in tliis same place in tlie night, 
and in the morning he remarked the number of coves, or as he calls them 
" breaches," in the land. The Saga mentions the same thing, saying that 
the land " became indented with coves." These coves have now disappeared, 
yet the testimony of Gosnold shows how accurately the Northmen observed ' 
this part of the coast. Likt^ Gosnold, they found it convenient and safe to 
lie here for a while. 

"^ Tills is the first time we hear of slaves being brought into Vinland. 
We have already seen that with the proud Nortliman, slavery was a reality. 
One of the near relatives of Ingolf, the first Northman who settled in 
Iceland, was murdi-red by his Scotch (Irish) slaves. 



54 PRE-COLUMBIAN DISCOVERY OF 

grapes, and the other an ear of corn. They went on 
board, and afterwards the course was obstructed by another 
baj^^ Beyond this bay was an island,- on each side of 
which was a rapid current, tliat they called the Isle of Cur- 
rents.^ There was so great a number of eider ducks^ there, 
that they could hardly step without treading on their eggs. 
They called this place Stream Bay.^ Here they brought 
their ships to land, and prepared to stay. They had with 
them all kinds of cattle. The situation of the place" was 
pleasant, but they did not care for anything, except to 
explore the land. Here they wintered without sufficient 
food. The next summer [A. D. 1008.] failing to catch 
fish, they began to want food. Then Thorhall the Hunter 
disappeared. 

They found Thorhall, whom they sought three days, on 
the top of a rock, where he lay breathing, blowing through 
his nose and mouth, and muttering. They asked why he 
had gone there. He replied that this was nothing that 
concerned them.'' They said that he should go home with 
them, which he did. Afterwards a whale was cast ashore^ 
in that place; and they assembled and cut it up, not 



■Tills was Nantucket or Martha's Viiu'yard, tht-u proljubly uiiitLKl, foriu-' 
ln;s^ one Island. 

■■'Nantncket island, wliicli then Avas jjroljably iniited with Martha's Vine- 
yard. 

^ Straumey, or Stranni Isle, which, perhaps, indicates their knowledg-e of 
the Gulf stream. 

* The gull, or some similar bird is here referred to. 

'^ Buzzards Bay. The general positions are fixed by the astronomical 
calculations from the data given in Leif 's voyage. See note to p. 33. 

•* The shore opposite Martha's Vineyard. 

'' It woiild appear from what follows that he was engaged in a heathen 
invocation. This is the only instance on record of honor being paid to this 
heathen god on the shores of New England, yet we unwittingly recognize 
him every time we say Thursday, tliat is, Tlior's Day. 

" In olden times a certain portion of every whale cast ashore' on Cape? Cod, 
formed a peripiisite of the clergy. 



AMERICA BY THE NORTHMEN. 55 

knowing M'^liat kind of a whale it was. They boiled it 
with water, and devoured it, and were taken sick. Then 
Thorhall said : " Now you see that Thor ^ is more prompt 
to give aid than your Christ. This was cast ashore as a 
reward for the hymn which I composed to my patron 
Thor, who rarely forsakes me." When they knew this, 
they cast all the remains of the whale into the sea, and 
commended their affairs to God. After which the air 
became milder, and opportunities were given for fishing ; 
and from that time there was an abundance of food; and 
there were beasts on the land, eggs in the island, and fish 
in the sea. 

They say that Thorhall desired to go northward around 
Wonder-strand to explore Vinland, but Karlsefne wished 
to go along the shore south. Then Thorhall prepared 
himself at the island, but did not have more than nine 
men in his whole company, and all the others went in the 
company of Karlsefne. When Thorhall was carrying water 
to his ship, he sang this verse : 

"People said when hither I 
Came, that I the best 



' Literally the Red-beard, as Tluir is supposed to have had a beard of that 
color. The prindi)al deity of the Northmen was Odin, a king- who died in 
his bed in Sweden, and was afterwards apotheosized. He was called the 
" Terrible god." The souls of men slain in battle were received by him 
into the hall of the gods. Next was Frigga or Frey, his wife, considered 
the' goddess of earth and mother of the gods. She finally fell into the 
place occupied by the classic Venus. Next was Thor the Red-beard, syn- 
onymous with Jupiter. These three composed the supreme council of the 
gods. Afterwards came the good and gentle Balder, the Northman's 
Christ ; then came Brage, patron of eloquence and poetry, and his wife 
hluua, charged with the care of certain apples, with Heinidal the porter of 
the gods and builder of the rainbow, and Loke, a kind of Satan or evil 
principle, aided by his cliildren, the Wolf Fenris, the Serpent Midgard, and 
Hela, or Death. 



56 PRE-COLUMBIAN DISCOVERY OF 

Drink would have, but the land 
It justly becomes me to blame ; 
I, a warrior, am now obliged 
To bear the pail ; 
Wine touches not my lips, 
But I bow down to the spring." 

And when they had made ready and were about to sail, 
Thorhall sang : 

"Let us return 
Thither where [our] country-men rejoice, 
Let the ship try 
The smooth ways of the sea ; 
While the strong heroes 
Live on Wonder-strand 
And there boil whales 
Which is an honor to the land." 

Afterwards he sailed north to go around Wonder-strand 
and Kiarlarness, but when he wished to sail westward, 
they were met by a storm from the west and driven to 
Ireland, where they were beaten and made slaves. And, 
as merchants ^ reported, there Thorhall died. 

It is said that Karlsefne, with Snorre and Biarne and 
his comrades, sailed along the coast south. They sailed 
long until they came to a river flowing out from the land 
through a lake into the sea, where there were sandy shoals, 
where it was impossible to pass up, except with the 
highest tide. Karlsefne sailed up to the mouth of the 
river with his folk, and called the place Hop.^ Having 



' We shall see from another part of this work, that the trade at that 
period between Ireland and Iceland, was very large. 

'•' This corresponds precisely to Mount Hope bay. The Taunton river runs 
through it, and thence flows to the sea by Pocasset river and Seaconuet pas- 
sage. Hop is from the Icelandic / ILqii, to recede, hence to form a bay. 
The coincidence in the names is striking. 



AMERICA BY THE NORTHMEN. 57 

come to the land, they saw that where the ground was low 
corn ^ grew, and where it was higher, vines were found. 
Every river was full of fish. 

They dug pits where the land began, and where the 
land was highest; and when the tide went down, there 
were sacred fish^ in the pits. There were a great number 
of all kinds of wild beasts in the woods. They stayed there 
half a month and enjoyed themselves, and did not notice 
anything; they had their cattle* with them. And early 
one morning, when they looked around, they saw a great 
many skin boats, and poles were swung upon them, and 
it sounded like reeds shaken by the wind, and they pointed 
to the sun. Then said Karlsefne, " What may this mean ? " 
Snorre Thorbrandson replied, " It may be that this is a 
sign of peace, so let us take a white shield and hold it 
towards them." They did so. Thereupon they rowed 
towards them, wondering at them, and came to land. 
These people were swarthy and fierce, and had bushy hair 
on their heads ; they had very large eyes and broad cheeks. 
They stayed there for a time, and gazed upon those they 
met, and afterwards rowed away southward around the ness. 

Karlsefne and his people had made their houses above 
the lake, and some of the houses were near the lake, and 
others more distant. They wintered there, and there was 
no snow, and all their cattle fed themselves on the grass.* 



' Perhaps wheat. Sinlfmna hKeitiakrar. 

'^ In Iceland the halibut is called the sacred fish. Pliny uses the same 
name, which indicates that the water is safe where they were found. Tlie 
halibut and most of the flat fish, such as floimders, are plentiful in that 
vicinity. The flounders are easily taken, and those who know how, often 
find them in very shoal water, burrowing just under the surface of the sand 
like the kinty crab. 

^This is language that might be employed by au Icelander, to indicate 
the difference between the new country and his own. It may have been 
an intentional exaggeration, similar to those of Eric in describing Green- 
land. Yet even if it were a serious attem])t at history, it could not be 
8 



58 PRE-COLUMBIAN DISCOVERY OF 

But when spring came [A. D. 1009.] they saw one morn- 
ing early, that a number of canoes rowed from the south 
round the ness ; so many, as if the sea were sown with 
coal ; poles were also swung on each boat. Karlsefne and 
his people then raised up the shield, and when they came 
together they began to trade ; and these people would 
rather have red cloth ; for this they offered skins and real 
furs. They would also buy swords and spears, but this, 
Karlsefne and Snorre forbade. For a whole fur skin, the 
Skrsellings took a piece of red cloth, a span long, and 
bound it round their heads. Thus went on their traffic 
for a time ; then the cloth began to be scarce with Karl- 
sefne and his people, and they cut it up into small pieces, 
which were not wider than a finger's breath, and yet the 
Skrsellings gave just as much as before, and more. 

It happened that a bull, which Karlsefne had, ran out of 
the wood and roared aloud; this frightened the Skr?ellings, 
and they rushed to their canoes and rowed away toward 
the south ; and after that they were not seen for three 
whole weeks. But at the end of that time, a great number 
of Skrjielling's ships were seen coming from the south like 
a rushing torrent, all the poles turned from the sun, and 
they all yelled very lond. Then Karlsefne's people took 
a red ^ shield and held it towards them. The Skr^ellings 
leaped out of their vessels, and after this, they went 
against each other and fought. There was a hot shower 
of weapons, because the Skra^llings had slings. Karlsefne's 
people saw that they raised up on a pole, a very large 
ball, something like a sheep's paunch, and of a blue color ; 
this they swung from the pole over Karlsefne's men, upon 



regarded as farther from tlie trutli, than Dr. Cotton Mather's description of 
the climate of New England, where he tells ns that water tossed up in the 
air, came down ice ; and that in one place in Massachusetts, it actually 
snowed wool, some of which, he tells us, he preserved in a box in his study. 
' The red shield was the sign of war, and tlie wliite, of ])eace. 



AMERICA BY THE NORTHMEN. 59 

the ground, and it made a great noise as it fell down.^ 
This caused great fear with Karlsefne and his men, so that 
they only thought of running away, and they retreated 
along the river, for it seemed to them that the SkrajUings 
pressed them on all sides ; they did not stop until they 
came to some rocks, where they made a bold stand. Frey- 
dis came out and saw that Karlsefne's people fell back, and 
she cried out, " Why do you run, strong men as you are, 
before these miserable creatures, whom I thought you 
would knock down like cattle? And if I had arms, 
methinks I could fight better than any of you." They 
gave no heed to their words. Freydis would go with them, 
but she was slov/er, because she was pregnant ; still she 
followed after them into the woods. She found a dead 
man in the woods ; it was Thorbrand Snorreson, and there 
stood a flat stone stuck in his head; the sword lay 
naked by his side. This she took up, and made ready to 
defend herself. Then came the Skrtellings toward her; 
she drew out her breasts from under her clothes, and 
dashed them against the naked sword ; ^ by this the Skr^l- 
lings became frightened and ran off to their ships, and 
rowed away. Karlsefne and his men then came up and 
praised her courage. Two men fell on Karlsefne's side, 
but a number of the Skreellings. Karlsefne's band was over- 
matched. And now they went home to their dwellings 
and bound up their wounds ; and considered what crowd 
that was that pressed upon them from the land side, and 
it now seemed to them that it could have hardly been real 
people from the ships, but that these must have been 



' This account can hardly be explained. These people, doubtless, had 
their own ideas of the best method of condnctinof a fight. They were evi- 
dently Esquimaux, and formerly, according to Crantz, appear to have lived 
on this coast before it was occupied by the Indians, who, being' a superior 
race, soon drove them away. 

"^ This appears childish, yet there is nothing to indicate that it was not so. 



60 PRE-COLUMBIAN DISCOVERY OF 

optical illusions. The Skrsellings also found a dead man, 
and an axe lay by him; one of them took up the axe and 
cut wood with it ; and then one after another did the same, 
and thought it was a fine thing and cut well. After that, 
one took it and cut at a stone, so that the axe broke, and 
then they thought that it was of no use, because it would 
not cut stone, and they cast it away. 

Karlsefne and his people now thought tluit they saw, 
although the land had many good qualities, tliat they still 
would always be exposed there to the fear of attacks from 
the original dwellers.^ They decided, therefore, to go 
away, and to return to their own land. They coasted 
northward along the shore,- and found tive Skrsellings clad 
in skins, sleeping near the sea. They had with them 
vessels containing animal marrow, mixed w^th blood.^ 
Karlsefne's people thought that these men had been banished 
from the land ; they killed them. After that they came 
to a ness, and many wild beasts were there, and the ness 
was covered all over with dung, from the beasts which had 
lain there during the night. Now they came back to 
Straumfiord, and there was a plenty of everj'thing that 
they wanted to have. [It is thus that some men say, that 
Biarne and Gudrid stayed behind, and one hundred men 
with them, and did not go farther ; but that Karlsefne and 
Snorre went southward, and forty men with them, and 
w^ere not longer in Hop than barely two months, and the 
same summer came back.]^ Karlsefne then went with one 



' Tliorfinu's cxperiL-nce was similar to tliat of most early colonists in 
America. 

^ This, very likely, was a short exploration up Narragfansett bay. 

' The ancient Mexicans mixed human blood with bread offered on the 
altar of their deities. 

■•The lines inclosed in brackets, convey what the writer understood to be 
a mere rumor. This report was evitlently untrue, yet it shows his honest 
intentions. 



AMERICA BY THE NORTHMEN. 61 

ship to seek Thorhall the Hunter, but the rest remained 
behind, and they sailed northward past Kiarlarness, and 
thence westward, and the land was upon their larboard 
hand. There were wild woods over all, as far as they 
could see, and scarcely any open places. And when they 
had sailed long a river ran out of the land from east 
to west. They sailed into the mouth of the river, and lay 
by its banks.^ 



It chanced one morning that Karlsefne and his people 
saw opposite in an open place in the woods, a speck which 
glittered in their sight, and they called out towards it, and 
it was a Uniped,^ which thereupon hurried down to the 



' Tliey appear to liavo sailed around Cape Cod, tlien steered across to 
Plymouth, coasted up the shore towards Point Aldertou, and entered 
Scituate harbor, or some other river moiith on that coast. 

"^ Einfoetingr, from ein, one, and fotr, foot. This term appears to have 
been given by some old writers, to one of the African tribes, on account of a 
peculiarity of dress, which Wormskiold describes as a triangular cloth, 
hanging down so low, both before and behind, that the feet were concealed. 
In an old work called Rimhigla, a tribe of this class, dwelling in Blaland, 
Ethiopia, are thus described. — Beamish' s Northmen, p. 101. We do not 
say how far the Saga writer employs his fancy on the Uniped, yet he is 
quite excusable, considering the weakness of modern writers. In 1634, 
Hans Egede wrote as follows about a hideous monster : " July 6th, a 
most hideous sea monster was seen, which reared itself so high above the 

water, that its head overtojiped our mainsail Instead of fins, it had 

broad flaps like wings ; its body seemed to be overgrown like shell work. . . . 
It was shaped like a serpent behind, and when it dived, . . . raised its tail 
above the water, a whole ship's length." — Egede' s Greenland, p. 85 ; Crantz's 
Oreenlaml, vol. in, p. 116. Hudson even describes a mermaid. 

The Rev. Dr. Cotton Mather, who has before been quoted, gives among 
other notable facts in his Magnalia, the statement, that in June, 1682, Mary 
Hortado, of Salmon Falls, was going with her husband " over the river in Ikt 
canoe, when thej^ saw the head of a man, and about three foot off, the tail of 
a cat, swimming before the canoe, but no body to join them A stone 



62 PRE-COLUMBIAN DISCOVERY OF 

bank of the river, where they lay. Thorvald Ericsou 
stood at the helm, and tlie Uniped shot an arrow into his 
bowels. Thorvald drew out the arrow and said : " It has 
killed me ! To a rich land we have come, but hardly shall 
we enjoy any benefit from it." Thorvald soon after died ^ 
of his wound. Upon this the Uniped ran away to the 
northward ; Karlsefne and his people went after him, and 
saw him now and then, and the last time they saw him, he 
ran out into a bay. Then they turned back, and a man 
sans: these verses : 



"to 



The people chased 
A uuipcd 

Down to the beach. 
Behold he ran 
Straight over the sea — 
Hear thou, Thorfinn ! 

They drew off to the northward, and saw the country of 
the Unipeds ; they would not then expose their, men any 
longer. They looked upon the mountain range that was 
at Hop, and that which they now found,^ as all one, and it 
also appeared to be of equal length from Straumfiord to 
both phxces. The third winter they were in Straumfiord. 
They now became much divided by party feeling, and the 
women were the cause of it, for those who were unmarried 
would injure those who were married, and hence arose 
srreat disturbance. There was born the first autumn, 
Snorre, Karlsefne's son, and he was three years old when 
they went away. When they sailed from Vinland they 



thrown by an invisible hand after this, caus'd a swelling and a soreness in 
her head ; and she was bitten on both arms black and blue, and her breast 
scratch'd. The impression of the teeth, which were like a man's teeth, 
were seen by many." — Magnolia, vol. i, p. 454. 

' See p. 41. This may be a wrong version of the deatli of the son of Eric. 

^ The Blue Hills, which extend to Mount Hope. 



AMERICA BY THE NORTHMEN. 63 

had a south wind, and then came to Markland, and found 
there, five Skr^ellings, and one was bearded; two were 
females, and two boys ; they took the boys, but the others 
escaped, and the Skrsellings sank down in the ground.^ 
These boys they took with them ; they taught them the 
language, and they were baptized. They called their 
mother Vathelldi, and their father, Uvajge. They said 
that two kings ruled over the Skreellings, and that one was 
named Avalldania, but the other Yalldidia. They said 
that no houses were there ; people lay in caves or in holes. 
They said there was a land on the other side, just opposite 
their country, where people lived who wore white clothes, 
and carried poles before them, and to these were fastened 
flags, and they shouted loud ; and the people think that 
this was White-man's land, or Great Ireland.^ 



Biarne Grimolfson was driven with his ship into the 
Irish ocean, and they came into a worm sea,^ and soon 
the ship began to sink under them. They had a boat 
which was smeared with sea oil, for the worms do not 
attack that. They went into the boat, and then saw that 
it could not hold them all. Then said Biarne: "As the 
boat will not hold more than half of our men, it is my 
counsel that lots should be drawn for those to go in the 
boat, for it shall not be according to rank." This, they 
all thought so generous an ofi:er, that no one would oppose 
it. They then did so that lots were drawn, and it fell to 
Biarne to go in the boat, and the half of the men with him. 



' Tlaat is, they fled into tlieir abodes. 

^ The location of this place will he discussed in the Minor Narratives. 

"This was the teredo, which is often so destructive, and which caused 
Columbus to abandon a ship at Puerto Bella, because he could not keep her 
afloat. See Irviu<r's Colunibiiit, p. 287. 



g4 PRE-COLUMBIAN DISCOVERY OF 

for the boat had not room for more. But when they had 
srotten into the boat, an Icelandic man that was in the 
ship, and had come with Biarne from Iceland, said: "Dost 
thou mean, Biarne, to leave me here ? " Biarne said : " So 
it seems." Then said the other: " Very different was the 
promise to my father, when I went with thee from Iceland, 
than thus to leave me, for thou said that we should both 
share the same fate." Biarne said, " It shall not be thus ; 
go down into the boat, and I will go up into the ship, since 
I see that thou art so anxious to live."^ Then Biarne 
went up into the ship, and this man down into the boat, and 
after that they went on their voyage, until they came to 
Dublin, in Ireland, and there told these things ; but it is 
most people's belief that Biarne and his companions were 
lost in the worm sea, for nothing was heard of them after 
that time. 

THE ACCOUNT OF THORFINN. 

That same winter [A. D. 1006-7.] there was much dis- 
cussion about the aifairs of Brattahlid ; and they set up the 
game of chess, and sought amusement in the reciting of 
history,^ and in many other things, and were able to pass 
life joyfully. And Karlsefne and Snorre resolved to seek 
Vinland, but there was much discussion about it. But it 
turned out that Karlsefne and Snorre prepared their ships 
to seek Vinland the following summer. [A. D. 1007.] 
And in this enterprise Biarne and Thorhall joined as com- 
rades with their own ship and crew, who were their 
followers. There was a man named Thorvald, a relation ^ 



^ This was truly in accordance with tlie noble spirit of the great Northmen, 
who had no fear of death, which to heroes, is the shining gate of Val- 
halla. 

- This is one evidence that history was cultivated in (jreenland. 

^ Here the writer is correct. See note 2, p. 51. 



AMERICA BY THE NORTHMEN. 65 

of Eric. Thorhall was called the Hunter; be long had 
hunted with Eric in summer, and had the care of many 
things. Thorhall was of great stature, large and swarthy 
face, of a hard nature, taciturn, saying little of affairs, and 
nevertheless crafty and malicious, always inclined to evil, 
and opposed in his mind to the Christian religion, from its 
first introduction into Greenland. Thorhall indulged in 
trifling, hut nevertheless Eric was used to his familiarity. 
He went in the ship with Thorvald, and was well ac- 
quainted with uninhabitable places. He used the ship in 
which Thorbiorn came ; and Karlsefne engaged comrades 
for the expedition ; and the best part of the sailors of 
Greeidand were with him. They carried in tbeir sbips, 
forty and a hundred men. Afterwards they sailed to West 
bygd and Biarney-isle. They sailed from Biarne^'-isle 
with a north wind, and were on the sea day and night, 
when they found land, and sending a boat to the shore, 
explored the land, where they found many flat stones of 
such great size, that they exceeded in length the size of 
two men. There were foxes there. And they gave the 
land a name, and called it Helluland. After tbis, they 
sailed a night and a day with a north wind. They came 
to a land in which were great woods and many animals. 
Southwest, opposite the land, lay an island. Here they 
found a bear, and called the island, Bear island. This 
land, where there were woods, they called Markland. 
After a voyage of a day and a night, they saw land, and 
they sailed near the land and saw that it was a cape ; they 
kept close to the shore with the wind on the starboard side, 
and left the land upon the right side of the ship. There 
were places witbout harbors, long shores and sands. When 
they went to the shore with a boat, they found the keel of 
a ship, and they called the place, Kiarlarncss ; ' and they 

' See page 52. 



QQ PRE-COLUMBIAN DISCOVERY OF 

gave the shore a name, and called it Wonder-strand, 
because they were so long going by. Then another bay 
extended into the land, and they steered into the bay.^ 
When Leif was with King Olaf Tryggvesson, he sent him 
to establish the Christian religion in Greenland ; then the 
king gave him two Scots-folk, a man named Hake, and a 
woman named Hekia. The king told Leif to take them 
with his men, if he would have his commands done quickly, 
as they were swifter than beasts. These folk, Leif and 
Eric gave to Karlsefne, as followers. When they were 
come opposite Wonder-strand, they put the Scots on the 
shore, and told them to run southward and explore the 
country, and return before the end of three days. They 
were thus clothed, having a garment called a Biafal ; ^ it 
was made so that a hat was on top, open at the sides, 
without arms, buttoned between the legs, and fastened 
with a button and strap ; and the rest was bare. 

They came to anchor and lay by, until the three days 
passed, when they returned, one having in his hand a vine, 
and the other, self-sown wheat. Karlsefne said that they 
had found a fruitful land. Afterwards they were received 
into the ship, and they went on their way until a bay 
intersected the land. They steered the ship into the bay. 
On the outside was an island, and there was a great tide 
around the island. This they called, Straumey.^ There 
was a great number of birds, and it was scarcely pos- 
sible to find a place for their feet among the eggs. Then 



' The same bay referred to in the previous account, and whicli lay b(!tween 
Point Gilbert and Isle Nauset. Archer, in his account of Qosuold's voyajje, 
says, that when they rounded Point Care, the extremity of Isle Nauset, 
" We boi'e up ag-ain with tlu^ land, and in the night, came with it anchor- 
ing in eight fathoms, the grovmd good." Here it will be seen that the 
Northmen lay safely for thi-ee days. 

'■' In the first account it is called a Kiafal. 

■'The agreement with the first account is substautiiil. 



AMERICA BY THE NORTHMEN. (37 

they steered into a long bay which they called Strauni- 
iiord, where they landed from their ships and began to 
prepare habitations. They brought with them all kinds 
of cattle, and they found sufficient pasturage. There were 
mountains, and the prospect was pleasant. But they 
cared for nothing, except to explore the land ; there was 
a great abundance of grass. Here they wintered, and the 
winter was severe, and they did not have stores laid up, 
they began to be in want of food, and failed to catch fish. 
So they sailed over to the island,^ hoping that they might 
find means of subsistence, either on what they could catch, 
or what was cast ashore. But they found but little better 
fare, though the cattle were better off. [A. I). 1008.] 
Afterwards they prayed to God, to send them food ; which 
prayer was not answered as soon as desired. Then Thor- 
hall disappeared, and a search was made, which lasted 
three days. On the morning of the fourth day, Karlsefne 
and Biarnc found him lying on the top of a rock; there he 
lay stretched out, with open eyes, blowing through his 
mouth, and muttering to himself. They asked him why 
he had gone there. He replied that it did not concern 
them and not to wonder, as he was old enough to take care 
of himself, without their troubling themselves with his 
affairs. They asked him to go home with them ; this he 
did. After that a whale was cast up, and they ran down 
to cut it up; nevertheless they did not know what kind it 
Avas. Neither did Karlsefne, though acquainted with 
whales, know this one. Then the cooks dressed the 
whale, and they all ate of it, and it made them all sick. 
Then Thorhall said, " It is clear now that the Red-beard 
is more prompt to give aid than your Christ. This food 
is a reward for a hymn wliich I made to my god Thor, 
who has seldom deserted me." When they heard this, 

' Tliis was pri)l)al)l_v Marllia's Vineyard. 



68 ' PRE-COLUMBIAN DISCOVERY OF 

none would cat any more, and threw what was left from 
the rock, committing themselves to God. After this the 
opportunity was given of going after fish, and there was 
no lack of food. They sailed into Straumfiord, and had 
abundance of food and hunting on the mainland, with 
many eggs, and fish from the sea. 

And now they began to consider where they should 
settle next. Thorhall the Hunter wished to go northward 
around Wonder-strand and Kiarlarness to explore Vin- 
land, but Ivarlsefne wished to go southwest, thinking 
likely that there would l)e larger tracts of country the 
further they went south. Thorhall made ready at the 
island, and only nine men went with him, all the rest of 
the ship- folk went with Karlsefne. One day Thorhall was 
carrying water to his ship; he drank it and sang this verse : 

" People promised uie when hither I 
Came, then the best drink 
I should have; but the country 
I must denounce to all ; 
Here you are forced by hand 
To bear the pail to the water, 
I must bend me down to the spring ; 
Wine did not come to my lips." 

Afterwards they left the land, and Karlsefne went with 
them to the island. Before they hoisted sail, Thorhall 
sang these verses : 

" Let us return 
Home to our. countrymen, 
Let the vessel try 
The broad path of the sea; 
While the persevering 
Men, who praise the land 
Are building, and boil the whales 
Here on Wonder-strand." 



AMERICA BY THE NORTHMEN. 69 

Thereupon they sailed northward around Wonder-strand 
and Kialarness. But when they wished to cruise west- 
ward, a storm came against them, and drove them to 
Ireland, where they were beaten and made slaves. There 
Thorhall passed his life.^ 

Karlsefne, Avith Snorre and Biarne and the rest of his 
comrades, sailed south. They sailed long until they came 
to a river, which flowed from the land through a lake, and 
passed into the sea. Before the mouth of the river were 
great islands, and they were not able to enter the river 
except at the highest tide.^ Karlsefne sailed into the mouth 
of the river, and called the land Hop. There they found 
fields, where the land was low, with wild corn, and where 
the land was high, were vines. And every river was full 
offish. They made pits in the sand, where the tide rose 
highest, and at low tide, sacred fish were found in these 
pits, and in the woods was a great number of all kinds of 
beasts. Here they stayed half a month, enjoyiog them- 
selves, but observing nothing new. Early one morning, 
on looking around, they saw nine skin boats, in which 
were poles that, vibrating towards the sun, gave out a 
sound like reeds shaken by the wind. Then Karlsefne 
said : " What, think you, does this mean ? " Snorre said : 
" It is possible that it is a sign of peace ; let us raise up 
a white shield and hold it towards them : " this they did. 
Then they rowed towards them, wondering at them, and 
came to land. These men were small of stature and fierce, 
having a bushy head of hair, and very great eyes and wide 
cheeks. They remained some time wondering at them, 
and afterwards rowed southward around the cape. They 



^ The first narrative says substantially the same thing, that Thorliall 
died in Ireland. 

* The first narrative speaks of the shoals. The islands and shoals Ijoth 
doubtless existed then. Since that time great changes have taken place 
in the physical aspects of that region. 



70 PRE-COLUMBIAN DISCOVERY OF 

built dwellings beyond the lake, others made houses near 
the mainland, and others near the lake. Here they spent 
the winter. No snow fell,^ and all their cattle fed under 
the open sky. They decided to explore all the mountains^ 
that were in Hop; which done, they [A. D. 1009.] went and 
passed the third winter in Straum bay. At this time they 
had much contention among themselves, and the unmarried 
women vexed the married. The first autumn, Snorre, 
Karlsefne's son, was born, and he [was three years old] 
when they went away. They had a south wind, and came 
to Markland, and found five Skniellings, of whom one 
was a man, aud two women, and two were boys. Ivarl- 
sefne took the boys, and the others escaped and sank down 
into the earth. They carried the boys away with them, 
and taught them the language, and they were baptized. 
And the name of their mother was Vatheldi, and their 
father, Uviiege. They said that two kings ruled over the 
Skra3llinger's land, one was named Avalldania, and the 
other, Valldidia; that they had no houses, but lived in 
dens and caves. In another part of the country, there was 
a region where the people wore white clothes, and shouted 
loud, and carried poles with flags. This they thought to 
be White-man's land. After this they came into Green- 
land, and passed the winter with Leif, son of Eric Red. 
Biarne Grirnolfsonwas carried out into the Greenland ^ sea, 
and came into a worm sea, which they did not observe, 
until their ship was full of worm holes. They considered 
what should be done. They had a stern boat, smeared 
with oil ; the}' say that wood covered with oil, the worms 
will not bore. The result of the council was, that as many 
should go into the boat as it would hold. It then appeared 



' Tliis might have been the case on some remarkable season. 
^This range extends to the Blue Hills of Massachusetts, which indicates 
considerable activity in exploration. 

^ Also called the Irish sea, and the sea before Vinland. 



AMERICA BY THE NORTHMEN. 71 

that the boat would not hold more than one-half of the 
men. Then Biarne ordered that the men should go in 
the boat by lot, and not according to rank. And as 
it would not hold all, they accepted the proposition, and 
when the lots were drawn, the men went out of the ship 
into the boat. And the lot was that Biarne should go 
down from the ship to the boat with one-half of the men. 
Then those to whom the lot fell, went down from the 
ship to the boat. And when they had come into the boat, 
a young Icelander, who was the companion of Biarne, 
said: "Now thus do you intend to leave me, Biarne?" 
Biarne replied, "That now seems necessary." lie replied 
with these words : " Thou art not true to the promise 
made when I left my father's house in Iceland." Biarne 
replied : " In this thing I do not see any other way ; " con- 
tinuing, "What course can you suggest?" He said, "I 
see this, that we change places and thou come up here 
and I go there." Biarne replied : "Let it be so, since I 
see that you are so anxious to live, and are frightened by 
the prospect of death." Then they changed places, and 
he descended into the boat with the men, and Biarne went 
up into the ship. And it is related that Biarne. and the 
sailors with him in the ship, perished in the worm sea. 
Those who went in the boat, went on their course until 
they came to land, where they told all these things. 

After the next summer, Karlsefne went to Iceland with 
his son Snorre, and he went to his own home at Reikia- 
ness. The daughter of Snorre, son of Karlsefne, was 
Hallfrida, mother to Bishop Thorlak Runolfson. They 
had a son named Thorbiorn, whose daughter was named 
Thoruna, mother of Bishop Biarne. Thorgeir was the 
name of the other son of Snorre Karlsefne's son, father to 
Ingvcld, and mother of the first bishop of Brand. And 
this is the end of the history. 



72 PRE-COLUMBIAN DISCOVERY OF 

THIRD NARRATIVE. 

That same summer came a ship from Norway to Green- 
land. The man was called Thorfinn Karlsefne, who steered 
the ship. He was a son of Thord Hesthofde, a son of 
Snorre Thordarson, from Hofda. Thorfinn Karlsefne was 
a man of great wealth, and was in Brattahlid with Leif 
Ericsson. Soon he fell in love with Gudrid, and courted 
her, and she referred to Leif to answer for her. Afterwards 
she was betrothed to him, and their wedding was held 
the same winter. At this time, as before, much was spoken 
about a Vinland voyage ; and both Gudrid and others 
persuaded Karlsefne much to that expedition. Now this 
expedition was resolved upon, and they got ready a crew 
of sixty men, and five women ; ^ and then they made the 
agreement, Karlsefne and his people, that each of them 
should have equal share in what they made of gain. They 
had with them all kinds of cattle,^ having the intention 
to settle in the land, if they could. Karlsefne asked Leif 
for his houses in Vinland, but he said he would lend them, 
but not give them. Then they put to sea witli the ship, 
and came to Leif 's houses ^ safe, and carried up their goods, 
They soon had in hand a great and good prize, for a 



^ There were three ships in the expedition, and this was doubtless the 
company that went in one of them. 

^ These could be easily carried, especially as their cattle were small. All 
the early Portuguese expeditions carried their live stock with them. Sec 
Prince Henry the Navigator. 

^ The diiferent events are here stated with some rapidity, and we seem to 
reach Leif's bootlis or huts sooner than necessary. According to the two 
previous accounts, they did not reach the locality of Leif's booths until the 
summer after they found the whale. These booths were at Mt. Hope Bay. 
This is either the result of confusion in the mind of the writer, or else it is 
founded on the fact that Leif ei'ected habitations at hoth jjlaces. In the 
two first accounts of Thorfinn Karlsefne's expedition, they are not alluded 
to. There mav be no real conti'adiction after all. 



AMERICA BY THE NORTHMEN. 73 

whale had been driven on shore, both large and excellent.^ 
They went to it and cut it np, and had no want of food. 
Their cattle went up into the land ; but soon they were 
unruly, and gave trouble to them, They had one bull 
with them. Karlsefne let wood be felled and hewed for 
shipping it, and had it laid on a rock to dry. They had 
all the good of the products of the land, which were these: 
both grapes and wood, and other products. After that 
first winter, and when summer came, [A. D. 1008.] they 
were aware of Skraillings being there ; and a great troop of 
men came out of the woods. The cattle were near to them, 
and the bull began to belloAv and roar very loud, and with 
that the Skr?ellings were frightened, and made off with 
their bundles — and these were of furs and sables and all 
sorts of skins ; and they turned and wanted to go into the 
houses, but Karlsefne defended the doors. Neither party 
understood the lanojuage of the other. Then the Skr^ellino^s 
took their bundles and opened them, and wanted to have 
weapons in exchange for them, but Karlsefne forbade his 
men to sell weapons. Then he adopted this plan with them, 
that he told the women to bear out milk and dairy products 
to them ; and when they saw these things, they would buy 
them and nothing else. And now the trade for the 



' The otlier accounts say that tlie wliale made tlicm sick ; but that was 
not because the fiesli of the whale was spoiled. Beamish, in his translation 
of the song: of Thoj-hall, indeed makes that disagreeable pagan tell his com- 
rades, that, if they wish, they 

'■'Fetid whale? may boil 
Here on Furdustrand 
Far from Fatherland ;" 

but there is nothing in the text to throw suspicion upon the whale. The 
trouble was, that a sudden overfeeding caused nausea, and the whale was 
thrown away afterwards in religious disgust. Yet the event is out of its 
chronological order, and i)roi)erly belongs in the account of the next year. 
10 



74 PRE-COLUMBIAN DISCOVERY OF 

Skrsellings was such, that they carried away their winnings 

in their stomachs ; and Karlsefne and his comrades got 

both their bags and skin goods, and so they went away. 

And now it is to be tokl, that Karlsefne let a good strong 

fence be made around the habitation, and strengthened it 

for defense. At this time, Gudrid,^ Karlsefne's wife, lay 

in of a male child, and the child was called Snorre. In 

the beginning of the next winter, came the Skrpellings 

again to them, and in much greater numbers than before, 

and with the same kind of wares. Then said Karlsefne to 

the women, " Now ye shall carry out the same kind of food 

as was best liked the last time, and nothing else. And 

when they saw that they threw their bundles in over the fence : 

and Gudrid sat in the door within, by the cradle of Snorre, 

her son. Then came a shadow to the door, and a woman 

went in with a black kirtle on, rather short, with a snood 

around her head; clear, yellow hair; pale; with large 

eyes, so large that none ever saw such eyes in a human 

head. She went to where Gudrid was sitting, and said : 

"What art thou called?" "I am called Gudrid; and 

what art thou called ? " "I am called Gudrid, said she." 

Then the goodwife, Gudrid, put out her hand to her, that 

she might sit down beside her. And at the same time 

Gudrid heard a great noise, and the woman had vanished ;^ 

and at the same time one of the Skrsellings was killed 

by one of Karlsefne's house men, because he was about to 

take one of their weapons ; and they made off as soon as 

possible, leaving behind them goods and clothes. No one 

had seen this woman but Gudrid. " Now," says Karlsefne, 

" we must be cautious, and take counsel ; for I think they 



'This event belongs to tlie previous year. These facts are not given 
in the other accounts, the writer appearing to have different information. 

- Tliis is another somewhat marvelous occurrence, similar to those with 
which Cotton Mather and others were accustomed to embellish New Eng- 
land history. 



AMERICA BY THE NORTHMEN. 75 

will come the third time with hostility and many people. 
We shall now take the plan, that ten men go out to the 
ness and show themselves there, and the rest of our men 
shall go into the woods and make a clearance for our 
cattle against the time the enemy comes out of the forest ; 
and we shall take the bull before us, and let him go in 
front." And it happened so that at the place where they 
were to meet, there was a lake on the one side, and the forest 
on the other. The plan which Karlsefne had laid down, 
was adopted. The Skrsellings came to the place where 
Karlsefne proposed to fight ; and there was a battle there, 
and many of the Skrsellings fell. There was one stout, 
handsome man among the Skn^Uings people, and Karlsefne 
thought that he must be their chief. One of the Skrnel- 
lings had taken up an axe and looked at it awhile, and 
wielded it against one of his comrades and cut him down, 
so that he fell dead instantly. Then the stout man took 
the axe,^ looked at it awhile, and threw it into the sea as 
far as he could. They then fled to the woods as fast as 
they could, and so ended the fight. Karlsefne stayed there 
with his men the whole winter ; but towards spring he 
made known that he would not stay there any longer, 
and would return to Greenland.^ l!^ow they prepared for 
their voyage and took much goods from thence — vines, 
grapes and skin wares. They put to sea, and their ship 
came to Ericsfiord, and they there passed the winter. 



' For the previous versions of this attliir of the axe, see pp. GO. This 
last account appears a litth' plainer. 

^ It is true that he decided to leave the country, but he did not carry out 
his intention until the following year, 1010. This narrative skips over all 
the events of the third year. It is nevertheless given, in order that the 
reader may have the fullest possible knowledge of any shortcomings that 
may exist in the manuscripts. This is done with the more confidence, for 
the reason that there is no doubt but that all the narratives contain a broad 
substratum of solid truth. 



76 PRE-COLUMBIAN DISCOVERY OF 

"The following summer,^ [A. D. 1011.] Karlsefne went 
to Iceland and Gudrid with him, and he went home to 
Reikianess. His mother felt that he had made a poor 
match, and for this reason Gudrid was not at home the 
first winter. But when she saw that Gudrid was a nohle 
woman, she went home, and thej got on well together. 
Halfrid was the daughter of Snorre Karlsefnesson, mother 
to Bishop Thorlak Runolfson. Their son was named 
Thorbiorn, and his daughter, Thoruna, mother to Bishop 
Biorne. Thorgeir was the son of Snorre Karlsefnesson, 
father to Ingveld, mother of the first Bishop Brand. 
Snorre Karlsefnesson had a daughter, Steinun, Avho married 
Eiuar, son of Grundarketil, son of Thorvald Krok, the son 
of Tliorer, of Espihol; their son was Thorstein Rauglatr. 
He was father to Gudrun, who married Jorundof Keldum. 
Halla was their daughter, and she was mother to Flose, 
father of Valgerda, who was mother of Herr Erland 
Sterka, father of Herr Hank, the Lagman.^ Another 
daughter of Flose was Thordis, mother of Fru Ingigerd 
the Rich ; her daughter was Fru Hallbera, Abbess of Stad, 
in Reikianess. Many other distinguished men in Iceland 
are the descendants of Karlsefne and Thurid, who are not 
here mentioned. God be with us. Amen. 



' From the statement at the end of the voyage of Freydis (see p. 80), we 
learn that the summer in which he returned from Iceland, Karlsefne went 
to Norway, and from thence the following spring, to Iceland. This does not 
conflict with the statement in the above narrative, though at first it may 
appear to. It does not say that he went the following summer from Green- 
land to Iceland, but that on that summer, he went to Iceland, which is 
perfectly true, though poorly stated, and his previous voyage to Norway 
being ignored. 

^ See p. 48. 



AMERICA BY THE NORTHMEN. 77 



Vni. THE VOYAGE OF FREYDIS, HELGE AND 
FINBOGE. 

This narrative is found in Antiquiiaies Americance, p. 65. 
It shows that history, among the Icelanders, was not 
made subservient to family interests. At the conclusion 
we have a (supplementary) notice of Thorfinn and Gudrid, 
after their return to Iceland. 



Now the conversation began again to turn upon a Vin- 
land voyage, as the expedition was both gainful and 
honorable. The same summer [A. D. 1010.] that Karlsefne 
returned from Vinland, a ship arrived in Greenland from 
Norway. Two brothers commanded the ship, Helge and 
Finboge ; and they remained that winter in Greenland. 
The brothers were of Icelandic descent from Earlfiord. It 
is now to be told, that Freydis, Eric's daughter, came home 
from Garda,^ and went to the abode of Finboge and 
Helge, and proposed to them that they should go to Vin- 
land with their vessel, and have half with her of all the 
goods they could get there. They agreed to this. Then 
she went to the abode of her brother Leif, and asked him 
to give her the houses he had built in Vinland; and he 
answered as before, that he would lend, but not give the 
houses. It was agreed upon between the brothers and 
Freydis, that each should have thirty fighting men, besides 
women. But Freydis broke this, and had five men more, 
and concealed them ; and the brothers knew nothing of it 
until they arrived in Vinland.^ They went to sea, and had 



^ Garda was the Episcopal seat of Greenland. Freydis and her husband 
went to Vinland with Karlsefne. It was she who frightened the Skraelliugs. 

^ It appears that the route to Vinland had become so well known, that 
the Saga writers no longer tliought it necessary to describe it. 



78 PRE-COLUMBIAN DISCOVERY OF 

agreed beforehand to sail in company, if they could do so : 
and the diiference was little, although the brothers came 
a little earlier, and had carried up their baggage to Leif 's 
houses. And when Freydis came to the land, her people 
cleared the ship, and carried her baggage also up to the 
house. Then said Freydis : " Why are you carrying your 
things in here?" "Because we thought," said they, 
" that the whole of the agreement with us should be held." 
She said, " Leif lent the houses to me, not to you." Then 
said Helge, " In evil, we brothers cannot strive with thee : " 
and bore out their luggage and made a shed, and built it 
farther from the sea, on the borders of a lake,^ and set all 
about it in order. Freydis let trees be cut down for her 
ship's cargo. ITow winter set in, and the brothers proposed 
to have some games for amusement to pass the time. 
So it was done for a time, till discord came among them, 
and the games were given up, and none went from one 
house to the other ; and things went on so during a great 
part of the winter. It happened one morning that Freydis 
got out of her berth, and put on her clothes, but not her 
shoes ; and the weather was such that much dew had fallen. 
She took the cloak of her husband over her, and went out, 
and went to the house of the brothers, and to the door. A 
man had gone out a little before and left the door behind 
him, half shut. She opened the door, and stood in the 
doorway a little, and was silent. Finboge lay the farthest 
inside the hut, and was awake. He said : " What wilt 
thou have here, Freydis ? " She said, "I want thee to get 
up and go out with me, for I would speak with thee." 



^ Mount Hope, bay is still often called a lake. These waters always appear 
like lakes. Brereton, in his account of Gosnold's voyage, calls these same 
bays, lakes. He writes : " From this [Elizabeth] island, we went right over 
to the mayne, where we stood awhile as ravished at the beautie and dilicacy 
of the sweetnesse, besides divers cleare lakes, whereof we saw no end." 



AMERICA BY THE NORTHMEN. 79 

He did so : they went to a tree that was lying under the 
eaves of the hut, and sat down. " How dost thou like 
this place ? " said she. He said, " The country, methinks, 
is good; but I do not like this quarrel that has arisen 
among us, for I think there is no cause for it." " Thou 
art right," says she, "and I think so too; and it is my 
errand to thy dwelling, that I want to buy the ship of 
your brothers, as your ship is larger than mine, and I 
would break up from hence." "I will let it be so," said he, 
"if that will please thee." Now they parted so, and she 
went home, and Finboge to his bed. She went up into 
her berth, and with her cold feet awakened Thorvard, who 
asked why she was so cold and wet. She answered with 
great warmth, " I went to these brothers," said she, " to 
treat about their ship, for I want a larger ship ; ^ and they 
took it so ill, that they struck and abused me. And, thou, 
useless man ! wilt neither avenge my affront, nor thy own ; 
and now must I feel that I am away from Greenland, but 
I will separate ^ from thee if thou dost not avenge this." 
And now he could not bear her reproaches, and told his 
men to rise as fast as possible, and take their weapons. 
They did so, and went to the tents of the brothers, and 
went in as they lay asleep, and seized them all, bound them, 
and led them out bound, one after the other, and Freydis 
had each of them put to death, as he came out. l!^ow all 
the men were killed ; but the women were left, and nobody 
would kill them. Then said Freydis, " Give me an axe in 
my hand." This was done, and she turned on those five 
women, and did not give over until they were all dead. 
Now they returned to their own hut after this evil deed ; 
and the people could only observe that Freydis thought 



* Freydis was evidently the principal in all things. 

^By the Icelandic law, a woman could separate from her husband for a 
sliffht cause. 



80 PRE-COLUMBIAN DISCOVERY OF 

she had done exceedingly well ; and she said to her com- 
rades, " If it be our lot to return to Greenland, I shall take 
the life of the man who speaks of this affair ; and we shall 
say that we left them here when we went away." IN'ow 
they got ready the ship early in spring [A. D. 1011.] which 
had belonged to the brothers, with all the goods they could 
get on, that the ship would carry, sailed out to sea, and 
had a good voyage ; and the ship came early in the summer 
to Ericsfiord. Karlsefne was there still,^ and had his ship 
ready for sea, but waited a wind; and it was a common 
saying that never a richer ship sailed from Greenland than 
that which he steered. 

Freydis went home now to her house, which had stood 
without damage in the meanwhile. She bestowed many 
gifts on her followers, that they might conceal her wicked- 
ness ; and she remained now on her farm. All were not 
so silent about their misdeeds and wickedness, that some- 
thing did not come up about it. This came at last to the 
ears of Leif, her brother, and he thought this report was 
very bad. Leif took three men of Freydis's followers, and 
tortured them to speak, and they acknowledged the whole 
affair, and their tales agreed together. " I do not care," 
says Leif, " to treat my sister as she deserves; but this I 
will foretell them, that their posterity will never thrive." 
And it went so that nobody thought anything of them but 
evil, from that time.^ Now we have to say that Karlsefne 
got ready his ship, and sailed out to sea.^ He came on well, 
and reached Norway safely, and remained there all winter 



'According to this statement, the expedition returned very early, as 
Karlsefne went to Norway the same season, as previously told. 

^ If this transaction had occurred during the previous century, when 
paganism universally prevailed, this atrocious act of the cold-blooded Frey- 
dis, would have been the prelude to almost endless strife. 

^ This account is supplementary to the foregoing, and is taken from the 
same work. Karlsefne, of course, sailed from Greenland. 



AMERICA BY THE NORTHMEN. gj 

and sold his wares; and he, and his wife, were held in 
esteem by the best people in Norway. I^ow in the follow- 
ing spring, he fitted out his ship for Iceland, and when he 
was quite ready, and his ship lay outside the pier waiting 
a wind, there came to him a south-country man, from 
Bremen, in Saxon land, who would deal with him for his 
house-bar.^ " I will not sell it," said he. " I will give 
thee half a mark of gold for it," said the south-country 
man. Karlsefne thought it was a good offer, and sold it 
accordingly. The south-country man went away with his 
house-bar, and Karlsefne did not know what wood it was. 
It was massur-wood ^ from Vinland. Now Karlsefne put 
to sea, [A. D. 1012.] and his ship came to land north at 
Skagafiord,^ and there he put up his vessel for winter. In 
spring he purchased Glamb?eirland,* where he took up his 
abode, and dwelt there as long as he lived, and was a man 
of great consideration ; and many men are descended from 
him and his wife Gudrid, and it was a good family. 
"When Karlsefne died, Gudrid took the management of his 
estates, and of Snorre her son, who was born in Vinland. 
And when Snorre was married, Gudrid went out of the 
country, and went to the south,^, and came back again to 



^ Ilusasnotru lias been translated "house-besom." The exact meaning is 
not known. A Ijesom-shaft would be too small, however rare the wood, to 
be made into anything of value. The bar for securing the house door was 
as common as necessary in every house, and this, perhaps, is what is referred 
to. 

■■' See note 1, p. 36. 

' In the north of Iceland. 

^ Not far from Skagafiord. 

^It is understood that she went to Rome. It may be asked why she 
did not spread the news of her son's voyage in those parts of Europe 
whither she went, and make known the discovery of the New World. To 
this it may be replied, that the Icelanders had no idea that they had found 
a New World, and did not a])i)reciate the value of their geographical know- 
ledge. Besides, there is nothing to prove that (iiulrid, and others who 
11 



82 PRE-COLUMBIAN DISCOVERY. 

Suorre's estate, and he had built a church at Glambae. 
Afterwards Gudrid became a nun, and lived a hermit's 
life, and did so as long as she lived.^ Snorre had a son 
called Thorgeir, who was father to Bishop Brand's mother, 
Ingveld. The daughter of Snorre Karlsefnesson was 
called Halfrid. She was mother of Runolf, the father of 
Bishop Thorlak. Karlsefue and Gudrid also had a son 
called Biorn. He was father of Thoruna, the mother of 
Bishop Biorn. Many people are descended from Karl- 
sefne, and his kin have been lucky ; and Karlsefne has 
given the most particular accounts of all these travels, of 
which something is here related. 



went to Europe at this period, did not make known the Icelandic disco- 
veries. At that time no interest was taken in such subjects, and tlierefore 
we have no right to expect to find traces of discussion in relation to what, 
among a very small class, would be regarded, at the best, as a curious story. 
See note on Adam of Bremen in the General Introduction. 

^ It will be remembered that all this was foretold by her former husband, 
Thorstein Ericson, when he returned to life in the house of Thorstein 
Black, in Greenland ; from whicli we must infer that the voyage of Thor- 
stein Ericson was composed after, or during, the second widowhood of 
Gudrid, and that the circumstance of Thorstein's prophecy, was, in accord- 
ance with the spirit of the age, imagined in order to meet the circum- 
stances of the case. See p. 46. 



MINOR NARRATIVES. 



MINOR NARRATIVES. 



I. ARE MARSON IIT HVITRAMANNA-LAND. 

This narrative is from the Landnama-bok, No. 107. 
Folio ; collated with Hauksbok, Melabok aud other manu- 
scripts, in the Arnce-Magncean Collection. 

It has frequently been observed that the Landnama-bok 
is of the highest authority; yet we must remember that it 
only proves the fact, that Rafn, the Limerick merchant, 
conveyed the narrative to Iceland from Ireland, where the 
circumstaiices were well known. The Landnama-bok, while 
it gives a tacit approval of the statements of the narrative, 
does not enter upon the question of the locality of the 
place to which Are Marson went. Therefore while we 
accept the narrative as genuine history, we should exer- 
cise due caution in determining the locality of Hvitra- 
manna-land. iN'othiug is to be gained by making any 
forced deductions from the narrative ; especially as the 
pre-Columbian discovery of America is abundantly proved, 
without the aid of this, or any other of the Minor J^arra- 
tives. 



Ulf the Squinter, son of Hogni the White, took the 
whole of Reikianess between Thorkafiord and Hafrafell; 
he married Biorg, daughter of Ey vind the Eastman,^ sister 



' 'I'luit is, a Norwegian. 



86 PRE-COLUMBIAN DISCOVERY OF 

to Ilelge the Lean. They had a son named Atli the Red, 
who married Thorbiorg, sister of Steinolf the Humble. 
Their son was named Mar of Holum, who married Thor- 
katla, daughter of Hergil ISTeprass. She had a son named 
Are, who [A. D. 928.] was driven by a storm to White- 
man's huid,^ which some call Ireland the Great, which lies 



^ irdtramanria-land. It will be remembered that in the Saga of Thor- 
finn Karlsefne (p. 63), this laud was referred to by the natives whom he 
took prisoners. They described it as a land inhabited by a people who 
wore white clothes, carried poles before them, and shouted. Yet the Saga 
writer there says no more than that the people think that this was the 
place known as Ireland the Great. What the Skraellings say does not 
identify it with the land of Are Marson. Yet, in order to allow Professor 
Rafu, who held that this country was America, the full benefit of his 
theory, we give the following extract from Wafer's Voyage, which shows 
that in the year 1681, when he visited the Isthmus of Darien, there were 
people among the natives who answered tolerably well to the description 
given in Karlsefue's narrative. Wafer says : " They are white, and there 
arc them of both sexes ; yet there were few of them in comparison of the 
copper colored, possibly but one, to two or three hundred. They diti'er 
from the other Indians, chieiiy in respect of color, though not in that only. 
Their skins are not of such a white, as those of fair people among Euro- 
peans, with some tincture of a blush or sanguine complexion ; neither is 
their complexion like that of our paler people, but 'tis rather a Milk- 
white, lighter than the color of any Europeans, and much like that of a 

white horse Their l:)odies are beset all over, more or less, with a fine, 

short, milk-white down The men would prol)ably have white bristles 

for beards, did they not prevent them by their custom of plucking the 

young Ijeard up by the roots Their eyebrows are milk-white also, and 

so is the hair of their heads." j). 107. 

He also adds, that " The men have a value for Cloaths, and if any of 
them had an old shirt given him by any of us, he would be sure to wear 
it, and strut about at no ordinary rate. Besides this, they have a sort of 
long cotton garments of their own, some white, and others of a rusty 
black, shaped like our carter's frocks, hanging down to their heels, with a 
fringe of the same of cotton, about a span long, and short, Avide, open 
sleeves, reaching but to the middle of their arms. . . . Thej' are worn on 
some great occasions. . . . When they are assembled, they will sometimes 
walk al)out the place or i)lantation where they are, witli thesi", tlu^ir n^bes 
on. And once I saw Taceiila tluis walking with two or three hundred of 



AMERICA BY THE NORTHMEN. §7 

in the Western ocean opposite Vinland, six^ days sail west 
of Ireland. Are was not allowed to go away, and was 
baptized^ there. This was first told by Rafn, the Lime- 



tliese attendinof liim, as if he was mustcrino- thcin. And I took notice that 
those in the black gowns walktxl before him, and the white after him, 
each having their lances of the same color with their robes." But not- 
withstanding these resemblances, historians will ask for more solid i)roof of 
the identity of the two people. 

^Professor Rafn in, what seems to the author, his needless anxiety to 
fix the locality of the White-man's land in America, says that, as this part 
of the manuscript is difficult to decipher, the original letters m(ty have got 
changed, and vi inserted instead of xx, or xi, which niimerals would afford 
time for the voyager to reach the coast of America, in the vicinity of 
Florida. Smith in his Dinlogues, has even gone so far as to suppress the 
term six altogether, and substitutes, " by a nvmiber of days sail unknown." 
This is simply trilling with the subject. In Oronland's Historiske Mindes- 
mcerker, chiefly the work of Finn Magnussen, no question is raised on this 
point. The various versions all give the number six, which limits the 
voyage to the vicinity of the Azores. Schuniug, to whom we are so largely 
indebted for t4ie best edition of Heimskringla, lays the scene of Marson's 
adventure at those islands, and suggests that they may at that time have 
covered a larger extent of territory than the present, and that they may have 
suff"ered from earthquakes and floods, adding, " If is likely, and all circum- 
stances show, that the said land has been a piece of North America." This is a 
bold, though not very unreasonable hypothesis, esi)ecially as the volcanic cha- 
racter of the islands is well known. In 1808, a volcano rose to the height of 
3,500 feet. Yet Schtining's suggestion is not needed. The fact that the 
islands were not inhabited when discovered by the Portuguese does not, 
however, settle anything against Schouing, because in the course of five 
hundred years, the people might either have migrated, or been swept away 
liy ])estilence. Oronland's Historiske Mindesmcerlcer , (vol. i, p. 150), says 
simply, that " It is thoiKjM that he (Are Marson) ended his days in America, 
or at all events in one of the larger islands of the west. Some think that it 
was one of the Azore islands." 

* The fact that Are Marson is said to have been baptized in Ireland the 
Great, does not prove that the place, wherever located, was inhabited by 
a colony of Irish Christians. Yet this view was urged by Professor Rafn 
and others, who held that Great Ireland was situated in Florida. A 
Shawanese tradition is given to prove that Florida was early settled by 
white men from over the s(>a. We read that in 1818, " tht^ Shawanese were 
established in Ohio, wliithei- thev came from Florida, Black Hoof, then 



88 PRE-COLUMBIAN DISCOVERY OF 

rick trader, who lived for a long time in Ireland. So also 
Thorkel, son of Geller, tells that certain Icelanders said, 
who heard Thorfinn, Earl of the Orkneys, say, that Are 
had been seen and known in White-man's land, and that, 
though not allowed to leave, he was held in much honor. 
Are had a wife named Thorgeir, daughter of Alf of Dolum. 
Their sons were Thorgils, Gudleif and Illuge, which is 
the family of Reikianess. Jorund was the son of Ulf the 
Squiuter. He married Thorbiorg Knarrabringa. They 
had a daughter, Thorhild, whom Eric the Red married. 
They had a son,Leif the Fortunate of Greenland. Jorund 
was the name of the son of Atli the Red; he married 
Thordis, daughter of Thorgeir Suda; their daughter was 
Thorkatla, who married Thorgils Kollson. Jorund was also 
the father of Snorre.^ 



eighty-five years old, was born there, and remembered bathing in the sea. 
He told the Indian Agent, that the people of his tribe had a tradition, that 
their ancestors came over the sea, and that for a long time they kept a 
yearly sacrifice for their safe arrival." — Archwologia Americana, vol. i, j). 
373. Yet these Indians, the supposed descendants of eminently pious 
Christians from Ireland, were bitterly opposed to Christianity, and had no 
Cliristiau traditions. This \'iew requires altogether too much credulity. Is 
it not more reasonable, especially in view of the fact that this narrative is 
not needed in demonstrating the pre-Columbian discovery of America — to 
seek for the White-man's land in some island of the Atlantic ; for if wo 
were to allow that six, should mean eleven or twenty days sail, we should 
not be much better off", since there is so much difiiculty in finding the white 
men for the land in question. 

^ It will appear from this genealogical account, that Are Marson was no 
obscure or mythological character. In 981 he was one of the itrincipal 
men of Iceland, and is highly spoken of. Yet his connection with Ireland 
the Great, though undoubtedly real, hardly proves, what may nevertheless 
\,Q true — a pre-Scandinavian discovery of America by the Irish. This, not 
improbable view, demands clearer proof, and will repay investigation. 
The other characters mentioned are eciually well known. See Atttiqui- 
tates Americana', pp. 311-12. 



AMERICA BY THE NORTHMEN. gg 



11. BIORN ASBRAKDSON. 

This narrative is taken from Eyrbyggia Saga, which 
contains the early history of that part of Iceland lying 
around Sntefells, on the west coast. The Saga is not of a 
later date than the thirteenth century. It is given here, not 
because it applies largely to the question under considera- 
tion, the pre-Columbian discovery of America, but rather 
because it will make the reader fully acquainted with the 
hero, who afterwards appears. 



Bork the Fat, and Thordis, daughter of Sur, had a 
daughter named Thurid, who married Thorbiorn the Fat, 
living on the estate of Froda. He was a son of Orne the 
Lean, who held and tilled the farm of Froda. Thorbiorn 
had before been married to Thurid, daughter of Asbrand, 
of Kamb, in Breidavik, and sister of Biorn Breidaviking 
the Athlete, soon to be mentioned in this Saga, and of 
Arnbiorn the Handy. The sons of Thorbiorn and Thurid, 
were Ketil the Champion, Gunnlaug and Hallstein. 

Now this must be related of Snorre the Priest,^ that he 
undertook the suit for the slaying of Thorbiorn, his kins- 
man. He also caused his sister to remove to his own 
home, at Helgefell, because it was reported that Biorn 
Asbrand, of Kamb, had come to pay her improper atten- 
tion. 



' Priest or Gode. This was the heathen priest of Iceland, whose duty 
was to provide the temple offerings, for which purpose a contribution was 
made by every farm in the vicinity. This office was also united with 
that of chief, judge, and advocate, and for the cases conducted by him 
at the Thing, he received the customary fees ; yet he was obliged to 
depend for his support, mainly upon the products of his farm. The office 
was hereditary, but could be sold, assigned, or forfeited. 
12 



90 PRE-COLUMBIAN DISCOVERY OF 

There was a man named Thorocld, of Medalfells Strand, 
an upright man and a good merchant. He owned a 
trading vessel in which he sailed to distant lands. Tho- 
rodd had sailed to the west,^ to Dublin, on a trading 
voyage. At that time, Sigurd ^ Hlodverson, Earl of the 
Orkneys, had made an expedition towards the west, to the 
Hebrides and the Man, and had laid a tribute upon 
the habitable part of Man. Having settled the peace, he 
left men to collect the tribute ; the earl himself returned to 
the Orkneys. Those who were left to collect the tribute, 
got all ready and set sail with a southwest wind. But 
after they had sailed some time, to the southeast and east, 
a great storm arose, which drove them to the north- 
ward as far as Ireland, and their vessel was cast away 
on a barren, uninhabited island. Just as they reached the 
island, Thorodd the Icelander came sailing by from 
Dublin. The shipwrecked men begged for aid. Tho- 
rodd put out a boat and went to them himself When he 
reached them, the agents of Sigurd promised him money 
if he would carry them to their home in the Orkneys. 
When he told them that he could by no means do so, as ■ 
he had made all ready to go back to Iceland, they begged 
the harder, believing that neither their money nor their 
liberty would be safe in Ireland or the Hebrides, whither 
they had just before been with a hostile army. At length 
Thorodd came to this, that he would sell them his ship's 
long-boat for a large sum of the tribute money ; in this 
they reached the Orkneys, and Thorodd sailed to Iceland 
without a boat. Having reached the southern shores of 
the island, he laid his course along the coast to the west- 
ward, and entered Breidafiord, and came to the harbor 



^ It was west witli regard to Norway, tlie jieople being- accustomed to use 
tliis expression. 

"Killed in Ireland in a battle, 1013. 



AMERICA BY THE NORTHMEN. Ql 

at D()0"iirdarness. The same autumn he went to Hels-efell 
to spend the winter with Snorre the Priest; and from 
that time he was called Thorodd the Tribute Taker. 
This took place just after the murder of Thorbiorn the 
Fat. During the same winter, Thurid, the sister of Snorre 
the Priest, who had been the wife of Thorbiorn the Fat, 
was at Helgefell. Thorodd made proposals of marriage to 
Snorre the Priest, with respect to Thurid. Being rich, 
and known by Snorre to be of good repute, and that h'e 
would be useful in supporting his administration of affiiirs, 
he consented. Therefore their marriage was celebrated 
during this winter, at Snorre's house, at Helgefell. In the 
following spring, Thorodd set himself up at Froda, and 
was thought an upright man. But when Thurid went to 
Froda, Biorn Asbrandson often paid her visits, and it was 
commonly reported that he had corrupted her chastity. 
Thorodd vainly tried to put an end to these visits. At 
that time Thorodd Wooden Clog lived at Arnahval. His 
sons, Ord and Val were men grown and youths of the 
greatest promise. The men blamed Thorodd for allowing 
himself to be insulted so greatly by Biorn, and offered 
him their aid, if desired, to end his coming. It chanced 
one time when Biorn came to Froda, that he sat with 
Thurid talking. It was Thorodd's custom when Biorn 
was there to sit in the house. But he was now nowhere 
to be seen. Then Thurid said, " Take care, Biorn, for I 
fear Thorodd means to put a stop to your visits here ; I 
think he has secured the road, and means to attack you, 
and overpower you with unequal numbers." Biorn re- 
plied, " That is possible," and then sang these verses : 

Goddess i whom bracelet adorns, 
This day (I linger 



'Literally, woman, with reference to Jord, the Earth, one of the wivcw ot 
Odin, and also innlhci' of Tlior. 



92 PRE-COLUMBIAN DISCOVERY OF 

In my beloved's arms) 

Stay longest in the heavens, 

As we both must wish; 

For I this night am drawn 

To drink myself the parentals ' 

Of my oft-departing joys. 

Having done this, Biorn took his weapons, and went to 
return home. As he went up the hill Digramula, five 
rhen jumped out upon him from their hiding place. These 
were Thorodd and two of his men, and the sons of Thoror 
Wooden Clog. They attacked Biorn, but he defended 
himself bravely and well. The sons of Thoror pressed 
him sharply, but he slew them both. Thorodd then fled 
with his men, though he himself had only a slight wound, 
and the others not any. Biorn went on until he reached 
home, and entered the house. The lady of the house ^ 
ordered a maid to place food before him. When the 
maid came into the room with the hght, and saw Biorn 
wounded, she went and told Asbrand his father, that 
Biorn had returned, covered with blood, Asbrand came 
into the room, and inquired what was the cause of his 
wounds. He said, " Have you and Thorodd had a fight ! " 
Biorn replied that it was so. Asbrand asked how the 
aftair ended. Boirn replied with these verses : 

Not so easy against a brave man 

It is to fight ; 

(Wooden Clog's two sons 

Now I have slain). 

As for the ship's commander, 

A woman to embrace, 

Or for the cowardly, 

A golden tribute to buy.'> 



^Funeral cups. 

^ Biorn's mother. 

' This is a fling at Thorodd the Tribute Taker. 



AMERICA BY THE NORTHMEN. 93 

Asbrand bound up his son's wounds, and his strength was 
soon restored. Thorodd went to Snorrc the Priest, to 
talk with him about setting a suit on foot against Biorn, 
on account of the killing of Thoror's sons. This suit was 
laid in the court of Thorsnesthing. It was settled that 
Asbrand, who became surety for his son, should pay the 
usual fines. Biorn was exiled for three years,^ and went 
abroad the same summer. During that summer, a son 
M'^as born to Thurid, who was called Kiarten. He grew 
up at home, in Froda, and earl}' gave great hope and 
promise. 

When Biorn crossed the sea he came into Denmark, 
and went thence to Jomsberg. At that time, Palnatoki 
was captain of the Jomsberg^ Vikings. Biorn was 
admitted into the crew, and won the name of the Athlete. 
He was at Jomsberg when Styrbiorn the Hardy, assaulted 
it. He went into Sweden, when the Jomsberg Vikings 



' This shows, that while Biorn killed the men in self defense, it was the 
opinion of the court that he did not get what he deserved. 

^ Jomsberg was the head quarters of an order of vikings or pirates, where 
a castle was also built by King Harold Blaatand, of Denmark. It was 
situated on one of the outlets of the Oder, on the coast of Pomerania. It 
was probably identical with Julian, founded by the Wends, and was recog- 
nized as the island of Wallin, which Adam of Bremen, in the eleventh 
century, described as the largest and most flourishing commercial city in 
Europe. Burislaus, king of the Wends, surrendered the neighboring- 
territory into the hands of Palnatoki, a great chief of Fionia, who was 
pledged to his support. Accordingly he built a stronghold here, and 
organized a band of pirates, commonly called vikings, though it must be 
observed, that while every making was a pirate, every pirate was not a 
viking. Only those pirates of princely blood, were jiroperly called vikings, 
or sea-kings. The Jomsvikings were distinguished for their rare courage, 
and for the fearlessness with which they faced death. They were governed 
by strict laws, and hedged about by exact requirements, and were also, it is 
said, pledged to celibacy. Jomsberg was destroyed about the year 1175, 
by Waldemar the Great, of Denmark, aided by the princes of Germany and 
the king of Barbarrossa. Those of the pirates who survived, escaped to a 
place near the mouth of tlu; Elbe, wliere a few years after, they were 



94 PRE-COLUMBIAN DISCOVERY OF 

aided Styrbiorn ; ^ he was in the battle of Tynsvall, in 
which Styrbiorn was killed, and escaped with the other 
Joms-vikings in the woods. While Palnatoki lived, Biorn 
remained with him, distinguished among all, as a man of 
remarkable courage. 

The same summer [A. D. 996.] the brothers, Biorn and 
Arnbiorn returned into Iceland to Ronhavnsos. Biorn 
was always afterwards called the Athlete of Breidavik. 
Arnbiorn, who had gotten much wealth abroad, bought the 
Bakka estate in Raunhavn, the same summer. He lived 
there with little show or ostentation, and in most aftairs 
was silent, but was, nevertheless, a man active in all 
things. Biorn, his brother, after his return from abroad, 
lived in splendor and elegance, for during his absence, he 
had truly adopted the manners of courtiers. He much 
excelled Arnbiorn in personal appearance, and was none 
the less active in execution. He was far more expert than 
his brother in martial exercises, having improved much 
abroad. The same summer after his return, there was a 
general meeting near Headbrink,^ within the bay of Froda. 
All the merchants rode thither, clothed in colored gar- 
ments, and there was a great assembly. Housewife 



anniliilated by the Danes, who in the reign of Cannte VI, completely 
destroyed their stronghold. Accounts of their achievements may be found 
in the Saga of King Olaf Tryggvessou, in vol. I, of Laing's Heimskringla. 
The Icelanders sometimes joined' the Norway pirates, as was the case 
with Biorn, but they did not fit out pirate ships. Palnatoki died in the 
year 9£l3. 

^ Styrbiorn, son of King Olaf, ruled Sweden in connection with Eric, 
called the Victorious. Styrbiorn's ambition, to which was added the 
crime of murder, led to his disgrace. He joined the vikings, adding sixty 
ships to their force. He was killed, as stated, in 984, in a battle with Ins 
vincle near Upsula. 

^Dasent says in describing the coast: "Now we near the stuix'iidons 
crags of Hofdabrekka, Headbrink, where the mountains almost stride into 
the main." 



AMERICA BY THE NORTHMEN. 95 

Thurid, of Frocla, was there, with whom Biorn hegan to 
talk ; no one censuring, because they expected their con- 
versation would be long, as they had not seen each other 
for a great while. On the same day there was a fight, and 
one of the IS'ordenfield men was mortally wounded, and was 
carried down under a bush on the beach; so much blood 
flowed out of the wound, that there was a large pool of 
blood in the bush. The boy Kiarten, Thurid of Froda's 
son, was there ; he had a little axe in his hand, and ran to 
the bush and dipped the axe in the blood. When the 
Sondensfield's men rode from the beach south, Thord 
Blig asked Biorn how the conversation between him and 
Thurid of Froda, ended. Biorn said that he was. well 
satisfied. Then Thord asked if he had seen the boy 
Kiarten, their and Thorodd's son. " I saw him," said 
Biorn: "What is your opinion of him ? " asked Thord, 
Biorn answered with the following song : 

" I saw a boy run 
With fearful eyes, 
The woman's image, to 
The wolf's well ^ in the wood; 
People will say, 
That his true father [was] 
He tliat ploughed the sea, 
This the boy does not know." 

Thord said : " What will Thorodd say when he hears that 
the boy belongs to you ? '"' Then Biorn sung : 

" Then will the noble born woman [make] 
Thorodd's suspicion 
Come true, when she gives me 
The same kind of sons; 



Refcrrino- to the dead man's Idood. 



96 PRE-COLUMBIAN DISCOVERY OF 

Always the slender, 
Snow-white woman loved me, 
I still to her 
Am a lover." 

Thord said, it will be best for you not to have anything 
to do with each other, and that you turn your thoughts. 
"It is certainly a good idea," said Biorn, "but it is far 
from my intention ; though there is some diiference when 
I have to do with such men as her brother Snorre." 
"You must take care of your own business," said Thord, 
and that ended their talk. Biorn afterwards went home 
to Kamb, and took the affairs of the. family into his own 
hands, for his father was now dead. The following 
winter he determined to make a journey over the hills, to 
Thurid. Although Thorodd disliked this, he nevertheless 
saw that it was not easy to prevent its occurrence, since 
before he was defeated by him, and Biorn was much 
stronger, and more skilled in arms than before. There- 
fore he bribed Thorgrim Galdrakin to raise a snow storm 
against Biorn when he crossed the hills. When a day 
came, Biorn made a journey to Froda. When he pro- 
posed to return home, the sky was dark and the snow 
storm began. When he ascended the hills, the cold 
became intense, and the snov/ fell so thickly that he could 
not see his way. Soon the strength of the storm increased 
so much that he could hardly walk. His clothes, already 
wet through, froze around his body, and he wandered, he 
did not know where. In the course of the night he 
reached a cave, and in this cold house he passed the night. 
Then Bi(3rn sung: 

" Woman that bringest 
Vestments,' would 
Not like my 
Dwellinc; in such a storm 



' In Iceland the women arc accustomed to bring travelers dry clothes. 



AMERICA BY THE NORTHMEN. 97 

If she knew that 
He who before steered ships, 
Now in the rock cave 
Lay stiiF and cold." 

Again he sang : 

" The cold field of the swans, 
From the east with loaded ship I plougked, 
Because the woman inspired me with love ; 
I know that I have great trouble suffered, 
And now, for a time, the hero is. 
Not in a woman's bed, but in a cave." 

Biorn stayed three days in the cave, before the storm 
subsided ; and on the fourth day he came home from the 
mountain to Kamb. He was very weary. The domestic 
asked him where he was during the storm. Biorn sung : 

" My deeds under 
Styrbiorn's proud banner are known. 
It came about that steel-clad Pjric 
Slew men in battle ; 
Now I on the wide heath. 
Lost my way [and], 
Could not in the witch-strong 
Storm, find the road." ^ 

Biorn passed the rest of the winter at home ; the following 
spring his brother Arnbiorn fixed his abode in Bakka, in 
Raunhafn, but Biorn lived at Kamb, and had a grand 

house 

This same summer, Thorodd the Tribute Taker invited 
Suorre the Priest, his kinsman, to a feast at his house in 
Froda. Snorre went there with twenty men. In the 



' All of these verses are extremely obscure and elliptical, though far more 
intelligible to the modern mind than the compositions which belonged to 
a still older period. All the chief men of Iceland practiced the composition of 
o 



98 PRE-COLUMBIAN DISCOVERY OF 

course of the feast, Thorodd told Snorre liow much he 
was hurt and disgraced by the visits of Biorn Asbrandson, 
to Thurid, his wife, Siiorre's sister, saying that it was right 
for Snorre to do away with this scandal, Snorre after 
passing some days feasting with Thorodd went home witli 
many presents. Then Snorre the Priest rode over the 
hills and spread the report that he was going down to his 
ship in the bay of Raunhafn, This happened in summer, 
in the time of haymaking. When he had gone as far 
south as the Kambian hills, Snorre said: "Now let us 
ride back from the hills to Kamb ; let it be known to you," 
he added, " what I wish to do. I have resolved to attack 
and destroy Biorn. But I am not willing to attack and 
destroy him in his house, for it is a strong one, and Biorn 
is stout and active, while our number is small. Even those 
who with greater numbers, have attacked brave men in 
their houses, have fared badly ; an example of which you 
know in the case of Gissur the White ; who, when with 
eighty men, they attacked Gunnar^ of Lithend, alone in 
his house, many were wounded and many were killed, and 
they would have been compelled to give up the attack, if 
Geir the Priest had not learned that Gunnar was short of 
arrows. Therefore," said he, " as we may expect to find 
Biorn out of doors, it being the time of haymaking, I 
appoint you my kinsman, Mar, to give him the lirst 
wound ; but I would have you know this, that there is no 
room for child's p\aj, and you must expect a contest with 
a hungry wolf, unless your first wound shall be his death 
blow." As they rode from the hills towards his homestead, 
they saw Biorn in the fields; he was making a sledge,^ 



verse. Chaucer makes his Parson apologize for his inability to imitate the 
practice. 

' See the Saga of Burnt Nial. 

^ These sledges were \ised in drawing liay, as the roads were then, as 
now, too poor for carts. 



AMERICA BY THE NORTHMEN. 99 

and no one was near him. He had no weapon but a small 
axe, and a large knife in his hand of a span's length, which 
lie used to round the holes in the sledge. Biorn saw 
Snorre riding down from the hills, and recognized them. 
Snorre the Priest had on a blue cloak, and rode first. The 
idea suddenly occurred to Biorn, that he ought to take his 
knife and go as fast as he could to meet them, and as 
soon as he reached them, lay hold of the sleeve of Snorre 
with one hand, and hold the knife in the other, so that he 
might be able to pierce Snorre to the heart, if he saw that 
his own safety required it. Going to meet them, Biorn 
gave them hail, and Snorre returned the salute. The 
hands of Mar fell, for he saw that if he attacked Biorn, the 
latter would at once kill Snorre. Then Biorn walked 
along with Snorre and his comrades, asked what was the 
news, keeping his hands as at first. Then he said : " I 
will not try to conceal, neighbor Snorre, that my present 
attitude and look seem threatening to you, which might 
appear wrong, but for that I have understood that your 
coming is hostile. Now I desire that if you have any 
business to transact with me, you will take another course 
than the one you intended, and that you will transact it 
openly. If none, I will that you make peace, which when 
done, I will return to my work, as I do not wish to be led 
about like a fool." Snorre replied: " Our meeting has so 
turned out that we shall at this time part in the same 
peace as before ; but I desire to get a pledge from you, 
that from this time you will leave off visiting Thurid, 
because if you go on in this, there can never be any real 
friendship between us." Biorn replied: "This I will 
promise, and will keep it; but I do not know how I shall 
be able to keep it, so long as Thurid and I live in the same 
land." " There is nothing so great binding you here," 
said Snorre, " as to keep you from going to some other 
land." " What you now say is true," replied Biorn, " and 



100 PKE-COLUMBIAN DISCOVERY OF 

SO let it be, and let our meeting end with this pledge, that 
neither you nor Thorodd shall have any trouble from my 
visits to Thurid, in the next year." With this they 
parted. Snorre the Priest rode down to his ship, and 
then went home to Helgefell. The day after, Biorn rode 
south to Raunhafn, and engaged his passage in a ship for 
the same summer. [A. D. 999.] When all was ready 
they set sail with a northeast wind which blew during the 
greater part of that summer. N^othing was heard of the 
fate of the ship for a very long time.^ 



III. GUDLEIF GUDLAUGSOK 

This narrative, which shows what became of Biorn 
Asbrandson, whose adventures are partially related in the 
previous sketch, is from the Eyrbyggia Saga. l!Totwith- 
standing the somewhat romantic character of these two 
narratives, there can be no doubt but that they are true 
histories. Yet that they relate to events in America, is 
not altogether so certain. 



There was a man named Gudleif, the son of Gudlaug 
the Rich, of Straumiiord and brother of Thorfinn, from 
whom the Sturlingers are descended. Gudleif was a great 
merchant. He had a trading vessel, and Thorolf Eyrar 
Loptson had another, when they fought with Gyrid, son of 
Sigvald Earl. Gyrid lost an eye in that fight. It took 
place near the end of the reign of King Olaf the Saint, that 
Gudleif went on a trading voyage to the west to Dublin. 



^This is tho only paragraph which applies directly to the Huliji'ct in 
hand. The followinjr narrative will bring Biorn to notice again. 



AMERICA BY THE NORTHMEN. IQl 

On his return to Iceland, sailing from the west of Ireland, 
he met with northeast winds, and was driven far into the 
ocean west, and south w^est, so that no land was seen, the 
summer being now nearly gone. Many prayers were offered 
that they might escape from the sea. At length they saw 
land. It was of great extent, but they did not know what 
land it w^as. They took counsel and resolved to make for 
the land, thinking it unwise to contend with the violence 
of the sea. They found a good harbor, and soon after 
they went ashore, a number of men came down to them. 
They did not recognize the people, but thought that their 
language resembled the Irish. ^ In a short time such a 
number of men had gathered around them as numbered 
many hundred. These attacked them and bound them 
all and drove them inland. Afterwards they were brought 
before an assembly, and it was considered what should be 
done with them. They thought that some wished to kill 
and that others were for dividing them among the villages 
as slaves. While this was going on, they saw a great 
number of men riding^ towards them with a banner con- 
spicuously lifted up, whence they inferred that some great 
man was among them. And when the company drev/ 
near, they saw a man riding under the banner, tall and 
with a martial air, aged and grayhaired. All present 
treated this man with the utmost honor and deference. 
They soon saw that their case Avas referred to the decision 
of this man. He commanded Gudleif and his comrades 
to be brought before him, and coming into his presence 
he addressed them in the Northern tongue, and asked from 



' Few persons will infer much from tluH ; u<jtliing is easier than to find 
resemblances in language. 

^ The language indicates that tliey were riding horseback, though it is 
not conclusive. And at the period referred to, there were no horses in 
•America, they liaving been introduced by the Spaniards, aftn- the discovery 
by Columbus. At least, such is the common ojjiniou. 



102 PRE-COLUMBIAN DISCOVERY OF 

what land, they came. They replied that the chief part 

were Icelanders. The man asked which of them were 

Icelanders. Gudleif declared himself to be an Icelander, 

and saluted the old man, which he received kindly, and 

asked what part of Iceland he came from. He replied 

that he came from the district some called Bogafiord. 

He asked who lived in Bogafiord, to which Gudleif 

replied at some length. Afterwards this man inquired 

particularly about all the principal men of Bogafiord and 

Breidafiord ; and of these he inquired with special interest 

into everything relating to Snorre the Priest, and of his 

sister Thurid, of Froda, and for the great Kiarten, her son. 

In the meanwhile the natives grew impatient about the 

disposition of the sailors. Afterwards the great man left 

him and took twelve of the natives apart, and conferred 

with them. Afterwards he returned. Then the old man 

spoke to Gudleif and his comrades, and said : "We have 

had some debate concerning you, and the people have left 

the matter to my decision; I now permit you to go where 

you will, and although summer is nearly gone, I advise 3-ou 

to leave at once ; for these people are of bad faith, and hard 

to deal with, and now think the}' have been deprived of 

their riglit." Then Gudleif asked, " Who shall we say, if 

we reach our own country again, to have given us our 

liberty?" He replied: "That, I will not tell you, for I 

am not willing that any of my friends or kindred should 

come here, and meet with such a fate as you would have 

met, but for me. Age now comes on so fast, that I may 

almost expect any hour to be my last. Though I may 

live some time longer, there are other men of greater 

influence than myself, though now at some distance from 

this place, and these would not grant safety or peace to 

any strange men." Then he looked to the fitting out of 

their ship, and stayed at this place until a fair wind sprang 

up, so that they might leave tlie port. Before they we^lt 



AMERICA BY THE NORTHMEN. 103 

away, this man took a gold ring from his hand and gave 
it to Gudleif, and also a good sword. Then he said to 
Gudleif: -'If fortune permits you to reach Iceland, give 
this sword to Kiarten, hero of Froda, and this ring to 
Thurid, his mother." Gudleif asked, " Who shall I say 
was the sender of this valuable gift? " He replied : " Say 
that he sent it who loved the lady of Froda, better than 
her brother, the Priest of Helgafell. And if any man 
desires to know who sent this valuable gift, repeat my 
words, that I forbid any one to seek me, for it is a danger- 
ous voyage, unless others should meet with the same 
fortune as you. This region is large, but has few good 
ports, and danger threatens strangers on all sides from the 
people, unless it shall fall to others as yourselves." After 
this they separated. Gudleif, with his comrades, went to 
sea, and reached Ireland the same autumn, and passed the 
winter in Dublin. The next spring they sailed to Iceland, 
and Gudleif delivered the jewel into the hand of Thurid. 
It was commonly believed that there was no doubt but 
that the man seen, was Biorn Breidaviking Kappa. And 
there is no other reliable report to prove this. 



IV. ALLUSIONS TO VOYAGES FOUND IN 
ANCIENT MANUSCRIPTS. 

Professor Path, in ArdiquUalcs Amcricancc, gives brief 
notices of numerous Icelandic voyages to America, and 
other lands at the west, of which there is now no record. 
The works in which thc}'^ are found are of the highest 
respectability. It is only necessary here to give the facts, 
which have been collected with much care. They show 
that the pre-Columbian discovei'y of America has tinged 



104 PRE-COLUMBIAN DISCOVERY OF 

nearly the whole body of Icelandic history, in which the 
subject is referred to, not as a matter of doubt, but as 
something perfectly well known. All these revelations 
combine to furnish indisputable proof of the positions 
maintained in this work, showing as they do, beyond all 
reasonable question, that the impression which so generally 
prevailed in regard to the discovery of this land, was not the 
result of a literary fraud. Some of the facts are given 
below : 

1121. Eric, Bishop of Greenland,! went to search out Vinland. 

Bishop Eric Upse sought Vinland. 
1285. A new land is discovered west from Iceland. 

New land is found - 

Adalbrand and Thorvald, the sons of Helge, found the new 
laud. 

Adalbrand and Thorvald found new land west of Iceland. 

The Feather ^ Islands are discovered. 

1288. Rolf is sent by King Eric to search out the new land, and 

called on people of Iceland to go with him. 

1 289. King Eric sends Rolf to Iceland to seek out the new land. 

1290. Rolf traveled through Iceland, and called out men for a 

voyage to the new land.' 



^ This is found in Annales Islandorum Regii, which gives the history of 
Iceland from the beginning down to 1307. Also in Annales Flateyeiisis, 
and in Annales lieseniini. Eric was appointed bishop of Greenland, but 
performed no duties after his consecration, and eventually resigned that 
see, in order to undertake the missitm to Vinland. He is also spoken of in 
two works, as going to Vinland with the title of Bishop of Greenland, a 
title which he had several years before his actual consecration. 

^ The manuscript is deficient here. 

^ The Feather Islands are mentioned in the Lijgmanns Annall, or, Annals 
of the Governors of Iceland, and Annales Skalholtini, or Annals of the 
Bishopric of Skalholt, written in the middle of the fourteenth century, long 
before Columbus went to Iceland. Beamish suggests that these are the 
Penguin and Bacaloa Islands. 

^ " The notices of Nj'ja land and Duueyjar, would seem to refer to a 
re-discovery of some parts of the eastern coast of America, which had been 



AMERICA BY THE NORTHMEN. 105 

1295. Landa-Rolf died. 

1357. There came thirteen large ships to Tcelaad. Eindride- 
sudeu was wrecked in East Borgafiord, near Langeness. 
The crew and the greater part of the cargo was saved. 
Bessalangen was wrecked outside of Sida. Of its crew, 
Haldor Magre and Gunthorm Stale, and nineteen men 
altogether, were drowned. The cargo suffered also. There 
were also six ships driven back. There came likewise a 
ship from Greenland,' smaller than the smallest of Ice- 
land ships, that came in the outer bay. It had lost its 
anchor. There were seventeen men on board, who had 
gone to Marklaud,- and on their return were drifted here. 
But here altogether that winter, were eighteen large ships, 
besides the two that were wrecked in the summer. 
There came a ship from Greenland that had sailed to Mark- 
land, and there were eight men on board. 



V. GEOGRAPHICAL FRAGMENTS. 

The first of these documents is from a work which pro- 
fesses to give a description of the earth in the middle age. 
From this it appears that the Icelanders had a correct idea 
of the location of Vinland in New England, though they 
did not comprehend the fact that they had discovered a 



previously visited by earlier voj'agers. The original appellation of Nyja 
laud, or Nyjafuudu-land, would have naturally led to the modern English 
name of Newfoundland, given by Cabot, to whose knowledge the discovery 
would [might?] have come through -the medium of the commercial inter- 
course between England and Iceland in the fiftet'Uth century." — Beamish. 

^ See the Decline of Greenland, in Introduction. 

^ Marklaud (Woodland) was Nova Scotia, as we know fi"om the descrip- 
tion of Leif and others. These vessels doubtless went to get timber. All 
these accounts shtiw that the Western ocean was gem-rally navigated in the 
middle of the fourteenth century. 
14 



106 PRE-COLUMBIAN DISCOVERY OF 

new Continent. The document may be found in Aniiqui- 
tates AmericaniC, p. 283. In the appendix of that work may 
be seen i^fcc simile of the original manuscript. The second 
document is from [Antiqaitates Americance, p. 292). It was 
found originally in the miscellaneous collection called the 
Gripla. 



A BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE WHOLE EARTH. 

The earth is said to be divided into three parts. One of 
these is called Asia, and extends from northeast to south- 
west, and occupies the middle of the earth. In the eastern 
part are three separate regions, called Indialand. In the 
farthest India, the Apostle Bartholomew preached the 
faith; and where he likewise gave up his life (for the name 
of Christ). In the nearest India, the Apostle Thomas 
preached, and there also he suffered death for the cause 
of God. In that part of the earth called Asia, is the city 
of I^ineveh, greatest of all cities. It is three days' journey 
in length and one day's journey in breadth. There is also 
the city of Babylon, ancient and very large. There King 
Nebuchadnezzar formerly reigned, but now that city is so 
thoroughly destroyed that it is not inhabited by men, on 
account of serpents and all manner of noxious creatures. 
In Asia is Jerusalem, and also Antioch; in this city Peter 
the Apostle founded an Episcopal seat, and where he, the 
first of all men, sang Mass. Asia Minor is a region of 
Great Asia. There the Apostle John preached, and there 
also, in the city Ephesus, is his tomb. They say that four 
rivers flow out of Paradise. One is called Pison or Ganges ; 
this empties into the sea surrounding the world. Pison 
rises under a mountain called Orcobares. The second river 
flowing from Paradise, is called Tigris, and the third, Eu- 
phrates. Both empty into the Mediterranean (sea), near 



AMERICA BY THE NORTHMEN. 107 

Antioch. The Nile, also called Geoii, isthe foiirtli river that 
runs from Paradise. It separates Asia from Africa, and flows 
through the whole of Egypt. In Egypt is New Babylon 
(Cairo), and the city called Alexandria. The second part 
of the earth is called Africa, which extends from the south- 
west to the northwest. There are Serkland, and three 
regions called Blaland (land of blackmen or negroes). The 
Mediterranean sea divides Europe from Africa. Europe is 
the third part of the earth, extended from west and northwest 
to the northeast. In the east of Europe is the kingdom of 
Russia. There are Holmgard, Palteskia and Smalenskia. 
South of Russia lies the kingdom of Greece. Of this king- 
dom, the chief cit}^ is Constantinople, which our people call 
Miklagard. In Miklagard is a church, which the people 
call St. Sophia, but the Northmen call it ^Egisif. This 
church exceeds all the other churches in the world, both as 
respects its structure and size. Bulgaria and a great many 
islands, called the Greek islands, belong to the kingdom 
of Greece. Crete and Cyprus are the most noted of the 
Greek islands. Sicily is a great kingdom in that part of 
the earth called Europe. Italy is a country south of the 
great ridge of mountains, called by us Mundia [Alps]. In 
the remotest part of Italy is Apulia, called by the North- 
men, Pulsland. In the middle of Italy is Rome. In 
the north of Italy is Lombardy, which we call Lombard- 
land. North of the mountains on the east, is Germany, 
and on the southwest is France. Hispania, which we call 
Spainland, is a great kingdom that extends south to the 
Mediterranean, between Lombardy and France. The 
Rhine is a great river that runs north from Mundia, 
between Germany and France. Near the outlets of the 
Rhine is Friesland, .n©rthward from the sea. North of 
Germany is Denmark. The ocean runs into the Baltic 
sea, near Denmark. Sweden lies east of Denmark, and 
Norway at the north. North of Norway is Finumark. 



108 PRE-COLUMBIAN DISCOVERY OF 

The coast bends thence to the northeast, and then towards 
the east, until it reaches Permia, which is tributary to 
Russia. From Permia, desert tracts extend to the north, 
reaching as far as Greenland. Beyond Greenland, south- 
ward, is Helluland; beyond that is Markland; from thence 
it is not far to Vinland, which some men are of the opinion, 
extends to Africa.^ England and Scotland are one island ; 
but each is a separate kingdom. Ireland is a great island. 
Iceland is also a great island north of Ireland. All these 
countries are situated in that part of the world called 
Europe. J^ext to Denmark is Lesser Sweden ; then is 
Oeland, then Gottland, then Helsingeland, then Verme- 
land, and the two Kvendlands, which lie north of Biarme- 
land. From Biarmeland stretches desert land towards the 
north, until Greenland begins. South of Greenland is 
Helluland ; next is Markland, from thence it is not far to 
Vinland the Good, which some think goes out to Africa; 
and if this is so, the sea must extend between Vinland and 
Markland. It is told that Thorfinn Karlsefne cut wood 
here to ornament his house,^ went afterwards to seek out 
Vinland the Good, and came there where they thought 
the land was, but did not reach it, and got none of the 
wealth of the land.^ Leif the Lucky first discovered 
Vinland, and then he met some merchants in distress at 
sea, and by God's grace, saved their lives ; and he intro- 
duced Christianity into Greenland, and it flourished so 
there that an Episcopal seat was set up in the place, called 



* In tlie face of tliis and a mviltitude of similar statements, Mr. Bancroft 
endeavors to make his readers believe that the locality of Vinland was 
uncertain. He might, with equal propriety, tell us that the location of 
Massachusetts itself was uncertain, because, according to the original grant, 
it extended to the Pacific ocean. 

^ See note 1, p. 81. 

^ This is a blunder. The writer must have been more of a geographer 
than historian. See the Saga of Leif, \). 36. 



AMERICA BY THE NORTHMEN. IQQ 

Garclar. England and Scotland are an island, and yet 
eacli is a separate kingdom. Ireland is a great island. 
These countries are all in that part of the world called 
Europe. 

FROM GRIPLA. 

Bavaria is bounded hj Saxony ; Saxony is bounded by 
Holstein, and next is Denmark. The sea runs between 
the eastern countries. Sweden is east of Denmark. IS'or- 
way is to the north ; Finmark is east of Norway ; from 
thence the land extends to the northeast and east, until 
you come to Biarmeland ; this land is under tribute to 
Gardaridge. From Biarmeland lie desert places all north- 
ward to the land which is called Greenland, [which, how- 
ever, the Greenlanders do not affirm, but believe to have 
seen it otherwise, both from drift timber, that is known 
and cut down by men, and also from reindeer which have 
marks upon their ears, or bands upon their horns, like- 
wise from sheep which stray here, of which there are 
some remaining in Norway, for one head hangs in Thrond- 
heim, and another in Bergen, and many others are to be 
found.] ^ But there are bays, and the land stretches out 
towards the southwest ; there are ice mountains, and 
bays, and islands lie out in front of the ice mountains ; one 
of the ice mountains cannot be explored, and the other is 
half a month's sail, to the third, a week's sail. This is 
nearest to the settlement called Hvidserk. Thence the 
land trends north ; but he who desires to go by the settle- 
ment, steers to the southwest. Gardar, the bishop's seat, 
is at the bottom of Ericsfiord ; there is a church consecrated 
to hol}^ Nicholas. There are twelve churches in the 
eastern settlement, and four in the western. 



' The part inclosed iu brackets is an iiiterpolatiou of a recent date, and 
without any authority. 



110 PRE-COLUMBIAN DISCOVERY IN AMERICA. 

N'ow it should be told what is opposite Greenland, out 
from the bay, which was before named. Furdustrandur ^ 
is the name of the land; the cold is so severe that it is not 
habitable, so far as is known. South from thence is 
Helluland, which is called Skrsellings land. Thence it is 
not far to Yinland the Good, which some think goes out 
to Africa.^ Between Vinland and Greenland, is Ginnun- 
gagah, which runs from the sea called Mare Oeeanum, and 
surrounds the whole earth. 



'Not to be confounded withtlie place of tlie same name at Cape Cod. 

"^ This is another passage upon which Bancroft depends, to prove that the 
locality of Vinland was unknown, when in the Sagas the position is minutely 
described, the situation being as well known as that of Greenland. 



INDEX. 



Adalbrand, 104. 

Adam of Bremen, xlix, «, 36. 

Adzer, Archbisliox), xxviii. 

^Eo-isif, 107. 

iElian, xiii. 

Africa, 107, 108, 110. 

Agassiz, Prof., 30, n. 

Alf. of Dolmu, 88. 

Alfarin Valesou, 13. 

Alfonso, xxlvii. 

Alps, 107. 

Alteson, Jorund, 18. 

America, iii. 

Amuud, Bishop, xxxiv. 

Andreas, xxxiii. 

Annales Flateyensis, 104, n. 

Annales Islandorum Regii, 104, M. 

Annales, Reseniini, 104, n. 

Anson, Lord, xxxviii. 

Antioch, 106, 107. 

Antiqiiarians, Royal Society of, Iv, n. 

AntiquitatesAmericanse, Ivii, n. 

Apulia, 107. 

Arcliaeologia, Americana, 88, n. 

Archer, 39, n, 31, n, 66, n. 

Argyle, Marquis of, liv, n. 

Aristotle, xiii. 

Arnse, Magnsean Collection, 48. 

Arnbiorn, 89, 94, 97. 

Arnlaug, 17, 35. 

Arnold, xxix, xxxii ; Gov. Benedict, 

Iviii, n. 
Asbrand, 93 ; Biorn, of Kamb, 89. 
Asia, 106 ; Minor, 106 ; Great, 106, 107. 
Aslak, 19, 49. 
Assonnet Neck, Iv, n, Ivii. 
Athelstane, xxxvii. 
Atlantis, xiii. 
Atli the Red, 86, 88. 
Avalldania, 63, 70. 
Azore, Island, 87, n. 

Babylon, 106 ; new, 107. 
, Bacoloa, Islands of, 104, n. 

Bakka, 94. 
' Balder, 55, n. 

] Ball's River, xxxvi. 



Bancroft, 108, n, 110, /i ; Mr. George, 
xliii ; his views controverted, 
xliii, liv, 11. 

Baptister}', l\ai. 

Bardarsou, Ivan, 13, n ; see Ivar Bert. 

Bartholomew, the Apostle, 106. 

Beacon, Mr. Joseph, 44, n. 

Beamish, iii, iv, xix, 104, n, 105, n. 

Bear Island, 67. 

Bede, the Venerable, xxiv, xxxiv, n. 

Behriug Straits. 

Beresvig, Roin, 13. 

Bergen, 109. 

Berse, Haldor's son, 13. 

Bert, Ivar, xxxi, 13, n. 

Bessalangen, 105. 

Bethencourts, xvi. 

Biafal, 66 ; see Kiafal. 

Biarne, Bishop, 71, 76, 83; Butter-Tiib, 
49, n, 51. 

Blarney, Isle, 65. 

Biorn, Asbrandson Breidaviking, Iii, 
9, 91, 93 ; exiled, 93 ; returns, 
94, 95, 96 ; goes abroad, 100, 103. 

Biorneland, 108, 109. 

Blaaserk, 16, 19. 

Blaland, 107. 

Blig, Thord, 95, 96. 

Blue Hills, 63, a. ^ 

Bogafiord, 17, 30. 

Borgafiord, East, 105. 

Borgafiordeu, 13. 

Bork, the Fat, 89. 

Bougainville, xiv. 

Bory, de St. Vincent, x\'i. 

Braaville, hii, //. 

Brage, 55, n. 

Brattahlid, xxvi. 

Bredobolstad, 19. 

Breidafiord, 17, 30. 

Breidavik, 89. 

Brereton, 39, /(. 

Broko, 19. 

Broughton, xviii. 

Brun, Maltc, lix, n, Ix, n. 

Bulgaria, 107. 

Bull, Pai)al, XXV, n 3. 



112 



INDEX. 



Burislaus, 93, n. 
Burnet, .liv, n. 
Burnt, Nial, 98, n. 
Buynirlfson, Dr., xxxi. 
Buzzard's Bay, 31, n. 
Byrdusmior, Biarne, 49. 
Byzantium, xxxvi. 

Cabot, xxxviii, 105, n. 

Cadiz, viii. 

Canaria, xv. 

Canary Islands, xiv, xv, x\i, xvii, n. 

Canute, xxxvii. 

Cape Cod, v, xlvii, 29, n ; old ship at, 

30, n. 
Cape Farewell, xxviii. 
Cape Malabar, 31, n. 
Capraria, xv, xvi. 
Carl Muller, xiv. 
Chaplains, xvii. 
Cliappell, 28, n. 
Chatham, 30, n. 
Chaucer, 98, n. 
Chingwank, Iv, n. 
Christ, 55, 67. 

Christophersen, Claudius, xxv, n 2. 
Cinnamon, 36, n. 
Clarendon, Lord, liv, n. 
Cock Laue ghost, liii. 
Codex Flatoiensis, xli. 
Colsens, xiii. 
Colonization of Greenland, 15 ; of 

Iceland, xxi. 
Columbus, xlviii, liv. 24, n, 104, n. 
Constantinople. 
Crantor, xxii, 59, n, 61, n. 
Crantz, xxxv. 
Crete, 107. 

Cronica General de Espana, xlvii. 
Cross, worshiped, Ix, n. 
Crossness, 42. 
Culdees, xxiv. 
Cyprus, 107. 

Dagmalstad, 33, n. 

Danforth, Dr., Iv, n. 

Darien, Isthmus of, 86, n. 

Dasent, xxxvi. 

De Barros, xvii, n. 

De Fries, Rev., xxx. 

Denmark, 107, 109. 

Dicuil, xxiv, n. 

Dighton Rock, xxx, n, Iv, Ivi, Ivii, n, 

12, n. 
Digram ul a. 
Dimonsvaag, 19. 
Disco, 32. 
Dcigardarness. 
Donsk tunga, xx. 
Drangey, 16, 19. 



Drapstock, 21, 23. 
Drift-wood, 14, n. 
Druidism, xix, n. 
Dublin, 64, 103. 
Dudley, Lieut. Gov., 32, n. 
Duneyjar, 104, n. 

Earl Sigvald, 100. 

Early Christianity in America, traces 
of, xviii ; history of, xxvii, n. 2. 

Earth, brief description of, 106. 

East Indies, xlviii. n. 

Easton, Peter, Iviii, n. 

Echard, liv, n. 

Egede, Rev. Hans, xxxv, 61, n. 

Egypt, 107. 

Einar, 13, 17, 19, n, 25. 

Eindridesuden, 105. 

Elysium, xiii. 

England, 106. 

Enne, 12. 

Ephesus, 106. 

Eric, Bishop, Ivii. 

Eric, the Red, xxv, xxvi ; accepts 
Christianity ,xxvii; goes to Green- 
land, li, 17, 19 ; resolves to seek 
new land, 12, 18 ; banished, 19 ; 
returns to Greenland, 20, 22 ; his 
accident, 28. 

Erickso, 20 ; see Ericseya. 

Ericseya, 16. 

Ericsfiord, xxvi, 109. 

Ericson, Thovald, xlvii, li ; goes to 
Vinland, 39 ; his death, 41, 62, 
65 ; Thorstein, li, 22 ; sails for 
Vinland, 43 ; returns, 43 ; his 
death, 45. 

Ericstad, 16. 

Erie, Bishop Upse, liii, 104. 

Erlandson, Hauk, xxiii, n, 11, n, 48. 

Espihol, 76. 

Escpiimaux. 

Ethelred, xxxvii. 

Euphrates, 106. 

Europe, 107, 109. 

Eyktarstad, 32, 33, n. 

Eyolfson, Bishop Magnus, xlviii, n. 

Eyrbyggia Saga, 89. 

Eyvind, 85. 

Fall River, lix, n. 

Farm, Leamington, Iviii. 

Farot^se, Ballad of, xlix, n. 

Feather Islands, 104. 

F(inris, 55, n. 

FiedspidiB, 20. 

Finboge, 77 ; sailed for Vinhind, 77 ; 

murdered, 79. 
Finn the Handsome, xlix, u. 
Finnmark, 107, 109. 



INDEX. 



118 



Flato, island of, xli. 

Florida, 87, n. 

Flose, 76. 

Forsark, Tliorkel, swims for a slieep, 
26. 

Forster, J. Reiuhold, xlix. 

Fortunate isles, xiv, xv. 

Foster, Father, 34, n. 

Fragments, geographical, 105. 

France, 107. 

Frederick, bishop, 17. 

Frederikshab, xxviii. 

Frey, 55, n. 

Freydis, 51, 77, n ; sailed for Vinland, 
77 ; quarrels with the company, 
78 ; murders the brothers and 
their company ; returns to Green- 
land, 80. 

Fridgerda, 49. 

Friederichstal, xxxi. 

Frisland, 107. 

Frithiofs Saga, xxiii, n, 52, n. 

Froda, 91, 95. 

Frode, Ari, xxiii, xxiv, n, xlvi. 

Fuerteventura, xvi. 

Furderstrand, 73 ; see "Wonder- 
strand. 

Fiirdustrandur, 110. 

Galdrakin, Thorgrim, 96. 

Games, 64. 

Gamlason, Thorhall, 49. 

Ganges, 106. 

Gardar, xxi ; location of, xxix, n ; 

cathedral of, xxx ; marriage in, 

xxxiii, n, 77, 109. 
Gardaridge, 109. 
Gaspe, lix, n. 
Geir, the Priest, 98. 
Gellarson, Thorgeir, 16. 
Geller, Thord, 49 ; Thorkel, 88. 
Geon, 107. 
Germany, 107. 
Gevser, xxii. 
Gilbert, 29, n, 3. 
Gisli, the Outlaw, 18, n. 
Gisser, 38. 

Gissur, the White, xxxii, n. 
Glambaerland, 81. 
Gnupson, Bishoji Eric, xxviii. 
Gode, 89, )i. 
Godthaab, xx\iii. 
Goe, Month of, 14. 
Gomera, xvi. 
Gornbornese-Skare, 12, n ; sec Gunn- 

biorn's Rocks. 
Gosnold, 29, n, 53, n. 
Gottland, 108. 

Gould, Sabine-Baring, xliv, n. 
Graah, Captain, xxviii. 

15 



Grammaticus, Saxo, Ivi, n. 

Grapes, 54. 

Graysteel, 19, n. 

Great Ireland, 64, 86, 87, n. 

Greece, 107. 

Greenland, discovery of, xxv ; pro- 
gress of, xxAd ; tributary to Nor- 
way, xxvii ; church organized 
in, xxviii ; monuments and ruins, 
xxx ; explorations in, xxxii ; 
trade of, xxxiii ; last bishop of, 
xxxiii ; decline of, xxxiii ; lost 
Greenland found, xxxv ; Queen 
Margaret i)rohibits trade, xxxv; 
ruins in, 21 ; cattle, 26 ; Christi- 
anity introduced, 108, 109. 

Qreenlander, Jon., xxxiv. 

Gregory, iv, xxv, n, 2. 

Grettir, Saga, xliv, n, 28, n. 

Grimhild, her death, 44. 

Grimkel, 12. 

Grimolfson, Biarne, 49, 51 ; lost in the 
Worm Sea, 63, n. 

Gripla, 106, 109. 

Gudlaug the Rich, 100. 

Gudlaugson, Gudleif, lii ; goes to Du- 
blin, 100 ; carried to sea, 101, 102. 

Gudrid, 37, 44, 45 ; second marriage, 
57, 72 ; goes to Vinland, 51, 64, 
72 ; goes to Rome, 81, n; a nun, 8. 

Gudrun, 76. 

Gunnbiorn, xxv ; his rocks, li, 12, 11, 
12, 13 ; money found at, 14. 

Gunnstein, 13. 

Gunthorm Stale, 105. 

Hafgerdingar, 22, n, 35. 

Hafrafell, 85. 

Haki, 53, 66, 

Haldor, xxxiii, 13. 

Halifax, 29. 

Halla, 76. 

Hallbera, Fru, Abbess of Stad, 76. 

Hallfrida, 71, 76, 82. 

Halmond, xliv, n. 

Halogaland, xxxviii. 

Hanno, xiv. 

Harald Harfagr, xxi. 

Hardicanute, xxxvii. 

Harold, Tlie Stern, xxx\ii. 

Harvard college, Iv, n. 

Hauk, Herr, 76. 

Haukdal, 16, 18, 19. 

Havgrim, 17, 22. 

Head brink, 94. 

Head, Sir Edmund, xl, n, xlvi. 

Heath, lix, ;;. 

Hebrides, 25, 90. 

Heimdal, 35, n. 

Hekia, 53, 66. 



114 



INDEX. 



Heimskringla, iii, 87, n, xsxvii, n, 
xlvii, Ivi, n. 

Hela, 55. 

Helge, 77 ; sailed for Vinland, 77 ; 
murdered, 79 ; the Lean, 86. 

Helg-efell, 89,91,100. 

Helhiland, liii, 65, 108, 110. 

Helsingeland, 108. 

Henningsou, Magnus, xxxv. 

Heriulf, 31, 23, n, 35. 

Heriulfness, xxiv. 

Heriulfson, Biarne, li ; goes to Nor- 
way, 27 ; goes to Greenland, 22 ; 
sees new land, 23, 34 ; settles, 35. 

Herodotus, xlvii. 

Hesperides, xv. 

Hialte, xxvii, n 3, 38. 

Hispania, 107. 

Historic Genealogical Register, 30, n. 

Historiske Mindesmserker, Grcin- 
land, 11, 15, 87, w. 

Hitardale, 16. 

Hoby, Ivi, n. 

Hofda-Strand, 49. 

Hogni tlie White, 85. 

Holmgard, 107. 

Holstein, 109. 

Holsteinborg, xx^viii. 

Homer, xiii, xlvii. 

Homstater, 30. 

Honev Dew, 31, n. 

-Hop, 60, 70 ; see Mt. Hope. 

Horse head, Thord, 49. 

Hortado, Mary, 61, n. 

Hreidarson, Ulf, 13. 

Husasnotru, 81, n. 

Hvalsci, 26. 

Hvalsofiord, 26. 

Hvidserk, 109. 

H\-itrammana-land, Iii, 86. 

Hymn to Thor, 55, 67. 

Iceland, discovery, xxi ; colonization, 
xxi ; birds of, xxii ; mammalia, 
xxii ; Christianity introduced, 
xxxi, 17 ; date of manuscripts, 
xli ; the Saga-men, xii ; printing 
press established, xlvii ; The 
Eddas, xlvii. 

Icelandic, grammat. structure of, iv. 

Iduna, 55, n. 

Igaliko, XXX, Ivi. 

Illuge, 19. 

India, 106. 

Indialand, 106. 

Indians, Gaspe, lix, n . 

Ingigerd, 76. 

Ingolf, xxii, 21, 25, 53, n. 

Ingolfshodi, xxii, n, xxiii. 

lona, Isles of, xxiv. 



Ireland, 108, 109. 

Ireland the Great, xviii. 

Irish Monks, xxi, n ; books of, xxiii ; 

bells and croziers of, xxiv, 101. 
Ironsides, Biarne, 49. 
Irving, Washington, xliv, xlviii, n. 
Islands, Greek, 107. 
Isle, of Currents, 54 ; Nauset, 29, n, 

31, n, 53, 66 ; of Sable, 53, n. 
Isles, of America, xviii ; of the Blessed, 

xiv. 
Italy, Ivii, 107. 

Jardar, xxv, 13, n, 15. 
Jerusalem, 106. 
John, the Apostle, 106. 
Johnson, Biorn, 48 ; Dr., liii. 
Joinville, xlvii. 
Jomsberg, Vikings, 93. 
Jones, Inigo, lix, n. 
Jord, the Earth, 91, n. 
Jorund, 16, 76, 88. 
Julian's Hope, xxviii, xxx. 
Juno, Temple of, xvi. 
Juuonia, xv, xvi, x\m. 

Kakortok, xxx. 

Kalbrunarskald, Thormod, 13. 

Kallstegg, xxiii, n ; iv, n. 

Kamb, 97. 

Kanitsok, Ivii. 

Karkortok, Ivii. 

Karlsefne, lix ; Thorfinn, Iii, Ivi, n, 
3, n ; goes to Greenland, 49 ; 
marriage, 51, 72 ; sails for Vin- 
51, 64, 72; sails past Wonder- 
strand, 55 ; trades, 58, 73 ; battle 
with natives, 59, 75 ; seeks Tlior- 
hall, 61 ; sails south, 55; kills 
some Sknellings, 60 ; returns to 
Greenland, 63, 75, 177 ; goes to 
Iceland, 71, 76 ; goes to Norway, 
80 ; cuts wood, 108 ; Snorre, born, 
74, 76, 82. 

Kendal, A. E.,lvii, n. 

Ketil, 17, 25, 89. 

Kiatal, 53. 

Kialarness, 40, 52, 65. 

Kiarten, 93, 95, 103. 

King, Christian II, xxxv ; Christian 
III, xxxv ; Frederic II, xxxv ; 
Henry of Portugal, xvii, n ; 
Harold, xxiv, xlv, 93 ; Juba II, 
XV, xvi ; Magnus, xxxii ; Olaf 
the Saint, 100; Olaf Try ggvesson. 
Saga of, xxxviii, 18 ; accepts 
Christianity, xxvi ; his swim- 
ming match, xxxvii ; ship of, 
xxxviii ; Sweno, xlix, n ; Nebu- 
chadnezzar, 106. 



INDEX. 



115 



Kingiktorsoak, xxxi. 

Kingsl)orouorli, xvii. 

Kittlebianio, 38, n. 

Kiiarrabrin<;a, Tliorbiary, 10, 18, 88. 

Kodrauson, 'i'liorvold, 17. 

Kol, 18, n. 

Kolgrinisson, Hroar, xxx. 

Krajre, Ulf, 113. 

Krok, Thorvald, 76. 

Kroksfiardarheidi, xxxii. 

Kvendland, 108. 

Labrador, 38, n. 

Laino-, iii, iv, Ivii, n ; Prof., xxxix. 

Lake, 69 ; houses built at, 70. 

Lancerote, xvi. 

Landa-Rolf, 105. 

Landuama Book, xxiii, n 1,11. 

Law of matrimony, 79, n. 

Leamington, Iviii, n. 

Leclerc, Father, lix. 

Ledehammar, xxxviii. 

Leif, xxvi, li, lii, 18, 22, 26 ; goes to 
Vinland, 27 ; returns to Green- 
land, 36 ; finds shipwrecked 
sailors, 36, 38, 39 ; sent to pro- 
claim Christianity in Greenland, 
38, 39 ; his Booths, lix, 40, 50, 72, 
105, 11 .'his judgment on Freydis, 
80, 88 ; the Lucky, 108. 

Leikskaale, 19. 

Literature of Iceland, xliii ; Anglo- 
Saxon, xlvi ; of France, xlvii ; 
Castilian, xlvii. 

Lizards, xvii. 

Lodbrok, Rognar, 49. 

Logman's Annall, 104, )i. 

Loigardelen, 13. 

Loke, 55, n. 

Lombardland, 107. 

Lombardy, 107. 

Long Serpent, xxxviii. 

Loptson, Thorolf Eyar, 100. 

Machin, Robert, xvii, u. 

Madeira, xvi. 

Madr, \\\, n. 

Magnus, Olaus, xl. 

Magnussen, Prof., Finn, xxxi, xxxiii, 

xlvii, 77, 27. n. 
Magre, Haldor, 105. 
Maine, liv, n. 
Major, xvi. 
Malte Brun.32, n. 
Man, Isl(> of, 90. 
Manamoyakc Bay, 31 , ii. 
Manuscripts, date of, xli. 
Manvcl, Juan, xlvii. 
Mar, 86, 99. 



Marana, John Paul, xix. 
Markland, liii, 29, n, 65, 105, 108. 
Mars, Vigdis, xxx. 
Marson, Are, lii, 85, 86, n, 87, n, 

88, -;;-. 
Martha's Vineyard, 54, n. 
Massachusetts, 108, n. 
Massur Wood, 81. 
Mather, Dr. Cotton, Iv, n, 46, n ; his 

Magtudia, 46, n, 58, n, 61, n, 

74, n. 
Matliieson, xxx. 
Mauritania, xx. 
Medafeels-strand, 90. 
Mediterranean, 106, 107. 
Merry Mount, 32, n. 
Mexico, British Language in, xix. 
Midgard, 35, n. 
Midjokul, 16, 20. 
Miklagard, 107. 
Milesieus, xix, n. 
Mill, Newport, Iviii, n, Chesterton, 

lix, n. 
Minor Narratives, lii, 86. 
Missionaries, French, lix, ;*. 
Mjorfiord, 13. 
Money found, li. 
Monuments, absence of, Iv. 
Moore, xix. 

Morton, New English Canaan, 32, n. 
Mossfell, 38, n. 
Mount Desert, liv, n. 
Mount Hope Bay, lii, 32, 56. 
Muudia, 107. 

Nadodd, xxi. 

Narragansett Bay, 6, n. 

Narratives, 1 ; their truthfuhiess, liii ; 
their age, liv ; Major Narratives, 
9 ; Minor, 83. 

Nantucket, 30, n, 32, n. 

Neprass, Hergill, 87. 

Ness R(-iin, 12. 

Newfoundland, liii. 

Newport, Iviii. «, lix, n. 

Niall, xix. 

Nicholas, 109. 

Nidaros, 18. 

Nile, 107. 

Nineveh, 106. 

Nivaria, xv. 

Nordenfield, 95. 

Nordrsi'tur, xxxii. 

Nortli American Review, iii. 

Northern Antiquarians, xlix, 29, n. 

Northnu-n, xviii, xx ; character and 
achievements of, xxxvi ; ships of, 
xxxvii ; colonize Greenland, 
xxxvii ; discover America, xxxvi ; 
nautical knowledge of, xl. 



116 



INDEX. 



Nortliumbria, xxxvii. 
Norway, 107, 109. 
Nutmegs, 'S6,n. 
Nyja, 105, ii. 
Nyja Land, 104, n. 
Nyjafundu-land, 105, //. 

Ocean, Pacific, 108. 

Oceamun, Mare, 110. 

Oddson, Eindrid, xxxi. 

Odin, xxii, n, xxii, 9, n, 55, v, n. 

Oeland, 108. 

Ogursvigen, 13. 

O'Halloran, xix. 

Olaf, the Saint, xxxvii. 

Old Mill, Iviii, n. 

Ombrios, xv, xvi. 

Orcobares, 106. 

Ord, 91, 82. 

Orkneys, 90. 

Orniuzd, xxii. 

Orne, the Lean, 89. 

Otis, Amos, 30, n. 

Paley, Dr., liv. 

Palfrey, lix, n. 

Palingenesia, xxii. 

Palma, x\i. 

Palnatoki, 93, n, 94. 

Palteskia, 107. 

Papey, Island of, xxiv. 

Papyli, Island of, xxiv. 

Panidise, 106, 107. 

Parentals, 92. 

Parry, xxxi. 

Peak of Teneriffe. 

Pelham, Edward, Iviii, n. 

Penguin Islands, 104, n. 

Penobscot, i, iv, /;. 

Peringskiold, 33, u, 36, ft, 40, n. 

Permia, 108,109. . 

Peter, the Apostle, 106. 

Peyrere, xxv, ;;. 2, xxxiv. 

Pharaoh Necho, xiv. 

Phenicians, xiii, xiv, xvii. 

Phoenius, xix, n. 

Pillars of Hercules, xii, xiii. 

Pison, 106. 

Plato, xiii. 

Pliny, XV, xvi, 57. 

Phi\'iala, xvi. 

Plutarch, xvi. 

Plymouth Colonists, xlvii. 

Point Alderton, 40, n. 

Point Care, 66. 

Point Gilbert, 30, n, 31, n, 40, n, 53, 

n, 66, n. 
Popham, George, 36, 7i. 
Port, Haldiman, 29. 
Priests of Sais, xiii. 



Prince Henry the Na\igator, xvi, 

72, n. 
Prince Madoc, xx. 
Purchas, His Pilgrimage, 12, n. 
Puerto Bello, 63,;/. 
Pur])urari;e, xv, xvi. 
Pulshmd, 107. 

Queen Margaret, xxxv. 

Race Point, 40, n. 

Rafn, Holm-Gang, 16, 19 ; Prof., iv, 
V ; the Limerick merchant, 85, 
86, 88, x\'iii, xxxiii, xlix ; his 
Antiquities of America, xlix, Iv, 
Ivi, 15, 25, 30, n, 31, n, 87, n, 103. 

Rask, Professor, xxxi. 

Raudulf, xxxviii. 

Rauglatr, 76. 

Red-beard, 67 ; see Thor. 

Reikiavik, xxiii, 12, 76. 

Rhine, 107. 

Rhode Island, 11 ; Historical Society 
of, Ivi. 

Robertson, Rev. Dr., xlix. 

Rocks, Portsmouth, Ivii, n ; Tiverton, 
Ivii, 71. 

Rofnsgrii)H, 17. 

Roiicr (iuiscard, xxxvi, h. 

Rolf of Rodesand, 13, 104. 

Rollo, xxxvii. 

Ronhavnos, 94, 100. 

Round Towers, lix, n. 

Runamoe, Ivi, n. 

Runic Letters, on an oar, xxxiv ; age 
of Alphabet, xviii ; in Grettir 
Saga, xliv, n. 

Runolfson, Bishop Thorlak, 71. 76, 
82. 

Russia, 107, 108. 

Sacred Fish, 57, 69. 

Ssemiind the Wise, xlvi. 

Sagadahoc, 36, n. 

Sagas, iii, iv, 110, n; general know- 
ledge of, xlix. 

St. C'olumba, xviii ; Paul, liv ; Pat- 
rick, x^iii ; John, Iii ; Savior, 
liv, n. 

St. Sophia, 107. 

Salmon, 32. 

Saxavol, 12. 

Saxe, son of Alfarin Valeson, 15. 

Saxo Grammaticus, xlviii. 

Saxon, V. 

Schiining, 87, n. 

Schoolcralt, Henry, Iv, n. 

Scotland, 108. 

Scots, 53. 

Sea of Darkness, xii. 



INDEX. 



117 



Seat, Episcopal, 106 ; of Gardar, 108, 

109. 
Seat Posts, 19 ; see Setstakkar. 
Serkland, 107. 
Sertoi-ius, xiv. 
Setstakkar, xxii, n. 
Shawanese Indians, 87, n. 
Sicily, 107. 
Sida, 105. 

Siffhvatson, Erlinpf, xxxi. 
Siffurd, Earl of the Orkneys, 90. 
Skagafiord, 81. 
Skalliolt, xxxi, v. 
Skardfa, Biaeren von, xxxiv. 
Skeleton in armor, lix, n. 
Skialdespilder, Eyvind, xlv. 
Skotuiiorden, 13. 
Skrsellings, xxxii, xxxiii, 21, 41, 57 ; 

Trade with Karlsefne, 58, 69, 70, 

78 ; one killed 74. 
Skripllings land, 110. 
Slaves, 18, n, 19, 53. 
Sledofes, 98. 
Slut Bush, 30, n. 
Smaellingar, 41, n. 
Smalenskia, 107. 
Smith, Capt. John, 29, n ; Joshua 

Toulmin, iii, iv ; Mr. Philip, 46, 

n. 
Smith's Dialogues, 42. 
Snaebiorn, Galte, 13 ; killed 14, 15, ». 
Snajfell, mountain of, xxxii. 
Sncefellsjokull, 16. 
Snorre, 89, 91, 93, 96, 97, 98, 99, 102. 
Snow, 70. 
Snowland, xxi. 
Soers, Eyulf, 16. 
Sokke, xxix. 
Solon, xiii. 
Solvi, 17, 25. 
Sondensfiekl, 95. 
Si)ainland, 107. 
S])('culuni Regali, xl. 
St;erbiorn, 13. 
Stafholt, 13. 
Statias Sebosus, xv, xvi. 
Steinum, 76. 

Sterka, Hen- Ereland, 76. 
Stilicho, xix, «, 1. 
Strabo, xix, x\ni. 

Straum Bay, 54, 70 ; see Stream Bay. 
Straumey, 66. 
Styrbiorii, 93, 94, n, 97. 
Straumfiord, 100. 
Stream Bay, 54. 
Stuf, the Skald, xlv. 
Sturlingers, 100. 
Styrmer, xxiii, /), 11, n. 
Sukkeroppen, xxviii. 
Sumarlide, 13. 



Superstition, 28, n. 
Sweden, 107 ; the lesser, 108. 
Swein, xxxvii. 
Sydero, 19. 

Tacenta, 86, n. 

Tacitus, xix, n, 2. 

Taunton, Iv, n. 

Thor, xxii, n, xxiv, 9, n, 35, n, 54, 55. 

Thorberg-, xxxviii, n. 

Thorbiorg, 86. 

Thorbiorn, 65 ; the Fat, 89, 91 ; Vifil- 

son, 16. 
Thorbjorno-lora, 17, 25. 
Thorbrandson, Helci, 17, 25 ; Snowe, 

49. 
Thord, 49, 72. 

Thordarson, Biorn, xxxi ; Snorre, 72. 
Thordsen, xxiii, ii, 11, n. 
Thordis, 76. 
Thorer the Idle, 39. 
Thorfinn, Earl of the Orkneys, 88. 
Thorgeir, 71, 76 ; Red, 13. 
Thorgest, 16, 19, 20. 
Thorgills, Kollson, 88. 
Thorgird, 21. 
Thorgrim, Styr, 16. 
Thorhall the" Hunter, 51, 54,65,67, 

68. 
Thorhild, xxvii, 16 ; her church, 47 ; 

the Partridge, 49. 
Thorkafiord, 85. 
Thorkatla, 87. 
Thorkel, 13, 14. 
Thorlacius, Bishop, 32, n. 
Thorod, 13, killed, 14, 15, n. 
Thorodd, 90, 91, 92, 93, 95, 96,97, 100 ; 

Wooden Clog, 91. 
Thoruna, 49. 
Thorsnestliing, 93. 
Thorstoin Black, 44, 82, n. 
Thoruna, 71, 76,82. 
Thorvald, son of Helge, 104 ; sou of 

Osvald, 15, 16. 
Thorvord, 52. 
Theojxmipus, xii. 
Thingness, 13, 14. 
Throndheim, 18, 109. 
Thurid, 51, n, 76; of Froda, 89, 91, 

102, 103. 
Tigris, 106. 
Timber cut, 73. 
Todum, 19. 
Torfaeus, xxxi ; works of, xlix, 32, n, 

48. 
Tradition, Indian, Ivii, n. 
Traditions, xviii. 
Turkish Spy, xix. 
Tyrians, xiii. 
Tyrker, 28, 34, 35. 



/ 






118 



INDEX. 



Ulf Krage, xxv, 16. 
Ulf Oexna-Tlaorerisson, 15. 
Ulf the Sqixinter, 85, 88. 
Unipeds, 61. 
Uvsege, 68, 70. 

Vag, 21. 

Val, 91, 93. 

Valldidia, 63, 70. 

Valgerda, 76. 

Valthiof, 18. 

Vathelldi, 63, 70. 

Vatnahver, 17, 18, 25. 

Vatshorn, 16. 

Vermelaud, 108. 

Villeliardoiiin, xlvii. 

Viulaud, xxvii, n 1, Ivii, 108 ; Ban- 
croft's Views of, xliii, n ; known 
by Adam of Bremen, xlix, n, 36, 
n ; known by the Irish, xlix, n, 
liii, Ivi ; climate, 33, 67 ; situation 
of, 87; the Good, 108, 110. 

Vivien de St. Martin, xiv. 

Voyages — Eric the Red, 15-31 ; Bi- 
arne, 31-36 ; Leif 's, 36-43 ; Thor- 
stein's, 43-48 ; Karlsefne's, 48- 
76; Freydis, 77-83; Helge, 77- 



Voyages, continued — 

83 ; Finboge, 77-83 ; Marson's, 
85-88; Asbrandson's, 89-100; 
Gudlangson's, 100-13 ; Miscella- 
neous, 103-105 ; Phenicians, xiv. 

Wafer, 8, 6, n. 

Waldemar the Great, 93, n. 

Walkendorf, Archbishop Eric, xxxv. 

Wallin, 93, n. 

Warwick, lix, n. 

Warwickshire, Iviii, /;, lix, n. 

Webb, Dr., 31, n. 

Werlauf, 14, n. 

Whales, 54, 56, 73. 

Wheat, 54, 66. 

White-man's land, 63, 70, 86, 87, n, 

88. 
Winthrop, Prof., Iv, n. 
Wonder-strand, 30, », 53, n, 66, n, 69. 
Woodland, 105, n. 
Woodrow, liv, n. 
Wormius, xxxiv. 
Worm Sea, 63, 70. 
Writing Rock ; see Dightou Rock. 

Yule, 50. 



